Room 217
by From Thessia To Rannoch
Summary: 2x16 with a major twist: Shay gets shot on the job. It goes from there. There will be Shafferty. (Bad at summaries)
1. Chapter 1

**IMPORTANT NOTE: 3500 words of this first chapter are missing. It's a long, frustrating story about website glitches and other uninteresting things. Unfortunately, I don't have the original document of chapter one on my computer anymore, so it is going to take me some time to remember what I wrote and then rewrite it. Until then, I'm just going to put a line break in the middle, which is where those 3500 words of writing were before they vanished into another dimension. Sorry, it's very incoherent this way, but I will fix it soon.**

**And finally: I don't own the show or characters, blah blah blah.**

Once again, Shay was covered in blood. In her line of work, this wasn't an uncommon occurrence. She had her share of blissfully boring calls that didn't involve any bodily messes, but Chicago was also quite giving with disasters. Today was no exception.

The ride in the ambulance was wonderfully routine at first. Dawson was chattering non-stop, cuing Shay in to the fact that she was in a good mood; when Dawson was unhappy, she was either stubbornly silent or could only spare the most scathing of comments. On that frosty March morning, though, Dawson was going on endlessly about her and Casey's relationship. They were looking for a place to move in together, which she was both excited and nervous about.

"I told him I don't want to be more than thirty minutes away from work," she explained, taking a right turn. "I also don't want a townhouse,"

* * *

one of those areas that no one really knows why they exist. Shay was grateful nonetheless.

Dawson got out and reentered through the ambulance's double-doors. Both women felt that familiar feeling of urgent apprehension when they saw just how much blood the man had lost. Sweat had collected on both their faces. They needed to stabilize him immediately.

"Sixty-one, they're on their way back! You need to get out of there!"

Shay lunged for the receiver and shouted into it, "Where are the police?" The man on the other end assured her that they were on their way. Dawson and Shay looked at each other. Severe blue eyes met burning copper ones. Knowing that Dawson was most engrossed with the patient, Shay nodded and jumped out the back of the ambo. She would have just clambered around the driver's seat, but there was limited space with a coding patient and a busy paramedic. She was running to the driver's seat when the rusty sedan came to a screeching stop in the road.

The first thug to jump out was the first to fire his weapon. A loud *bang* penetreated the world around them, followed by a persistent barrage of pop-popping. Shay felt a focused force shove her off-balance. As she fell back, she saw the sun glint off of each of the three thugs' guns like a flashing silver siren light. The cold earth came up hard on Shay's back. She was granted a single heartbeat of numbness before her body registered the pain it was in. It felt like nothing she had ever felt before. She would have screamed, but her lungs were busy sucking in frantic gusts of oxygen. Her pale hand clapped instinctively over her pained left shoulder. Red ink burbled out from under her hand. It was the second time she was covered in blood that day.

The rest was a blur of motion and color. Shay remembered flashes of blue and red, followed by several uniforms making a constricting circle around the three thugs. At some point, Shay saw horizontal lines of fluorescent hospital lights light slide past and Gabriela Dawson's scared face hanging over her.


	2. Chapter 2

Severide was shaving when he got Dawson's phone call. The next minute, he was speeding down the road and wiping a remnant lather of shaving cream off his jaw.

Dawson met him in the waiting room. Her face reciprocated the fear on Kelly's, but she gripped his shoulders and held his eyes to tell him that Shay was going to be fine. She had to repeat it twice for Kelly's brain to register it.

What happened?" he demanded.

"We got a call to treat someone carrying a bunch of coke that some thugs wanted. They chased us and shot at the ambo just when Shay was getting out to get to the wheel," Dawson explained. Her brow immediately tightened and she pulled away from Kelly. She crossed one arm over the other and cupped her hand over her eyes.

"Hey, hey, Dawson," Severide said. It was his turn to comfort her. "It's not your fault, and like you said, Shay's gonna be fine." Their friendship— which really only existed because of their common link, Shay— permitted the consolation of a hug and the suggestion for her to have a seat. They sat together in silence for an immeasurable amount of time. The hospital was irritatingly quiet. None of the five or so people in the waiting room talked, but they all watched the doctors' movements with anxious anticipation. The medical professionals seemed busy but not faced with any urgency. Every minute of this that passed seemed to make the atmosphere thicker and thicker until Kelly found it a bit hard to breathe.

A shrill ringtone threw Kelly out of his haunted trance. In one abrupt motion, he snatched his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans and held it up to his ear. "Hello," he husked. Dawson turned toward him with interest. "Yeah, hey, Hermann. No, I don't know— Wait, hold on, the doc's here." With the call still going, Kelly let his hand hang at his side.

He and Gabriela both stood up to receive the doctor's news. The doctor was still wearing his medical scrubs. As he approached, he pulled off his face mask, took a big breath, and smiled at Kelly and Gabriela's distressed faces. "Leslie is fine." Upon hearing those words, an insufferable heaviness launched from their bodies. "She suffered a gunshot wound to the right shoulder area, but we were able to remove it. She's going to be just fine." Severide and Dawson were far from best friends, but they turned and wrapped their arms around each other, grinning.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: So I have no idea how long it would take to recover from a GSW, or what treatment for that entails. For the sake of Shafferty, let's just go along with this, shall we?

Hospital rooms never bear fresh air. This was one of the first things Leslie Shay was reminded of once she regained consciousness. With her eyes still closed, she relished in the simplicity of her body's continued respiration and the detached space between consciousness and unconsciousness. In this state of limbo, she was awake just enough to feel relaxation but still too out of it to remember the worries of any particular situation. Unfortunately, consciousness caught up to her rather quickly.

First, her eyes peeled open. She saw dingy gray ceiling tiles. Spokes of light snuck in through the blinds on the right window and illuminated spiraling congregations of dust in the air. Slowly, her five senses turned on. She felt a hand wrapped over her own, and looked down. Dawson was half in a chair, half on Shay's gurney. She was seated, though her head was tucked next to Leslie's leg. One arm served as her own pillow while the other reached around to hold Leslie's hand. To Shay's left, Severide was shifting into numerous different positions in his seat, trying to find comfort in a chair that was, frankly, too small for him. When he finally gave up and sat like a normal person, he noticed Shay's open eyes and beamed at her.

"Shay!" he said, immediately leaning forward. Gabriela's head popped up, and groggy eyes flashed happilly at the sight of her awoken partner. "Hey, hey," Shay croaked with a smile. A jovial feeling overtook her, a side-effect of the affection radiating from her two best friends. Shay put her hands down on the sides of her bed to push herself into an upright position, but both Dawson and Kelly immediately waved their hands in her face in protest. "No-no-no-no," Dawson commanded, "Just relax."

Shay snorted and rolled her eyes. "I'm fine, mom," she muttered with a smirk, eliciting an amused smile from both of her guests. While Dawson asked Shay the typical post-surgery questions, like 'Do you need anything? How are you feeling?' Severide stood and dialed Hermann's number. He relayed the good news to Hermann, who would no doubt pass it on to the rest of 51.

It wasn't long before members of the firehouse showed up. They had to drop in in groups of three because of the visitor limit. Shay felt both blessed and bashful as each of her friends from the firehouse showed up. She was flattered to be reminded that so many people cared about her well-being, and she was relieved that they adopted an infectious cheeriness instead of a tip-toeing caution, but wearing a breezy hospital gown and looking like absolute shit in front of them was, admittedly, a little embarrassing.

It was late by the time Mouch, Casey, and Otis left. They were the last group of three the hospital would allow. "We've already given you fifteen minutes past visiting time!" one tiny nurse reprimanded, shooing the three firemen out as affectionately as one can. Dawson and Severide bid Shay goodbye as well, each of them giving her a quick kiss on the temple before leaving. Dawson flicked the light off and shut the door behind her.

She was alone— finally. As much as she loved seeing everyone, being the center of attention for all of them was exhausting. Not to mention she had been shot. _Weird_, she thought. _I got shot. I actually got shot... the hell?_ It seemed surreal to her until, finally having a moment to think, the memories of the day trickled back into her brain. She remembered the unfriendly cold of the outdoors, the racetrack pulse through her veins, the frightened indecision of extreme situations and, of course, the pain.

Her battery was running low. The only thing motivating her to stay awake before was the company of all her friends, and now she had no reason not to go back to sleep. Despite how tired she was, she always struggled to slip into unconsciousness when she was without the safe feeling of familiar surroundings. Sleep is a period of resignation and vulnerability, which is a combination Shay sometimes finds disconcerting. There she lay, exhausted but unable to shut her mind down. The darkness wound around her like a cold wind. She didn't like being alone at all, which confused her since she had started to get sick of company just a few minutes ago.

Shay sighed. _I__ still can't fucking believe I got shot._ Her arm stretched toward the lamp on the bedside table. She couldn't reach it without curling onto her shoulder, and that sent a burning current of pain through her body. She grit her teeth through it because her fingers had just brushed against the switch. The light flashed on, and Shay fell onto her back. She closed her eyes and breathed through the last aching pulsations radiating from her wound. Her left hand snaked out from under her blankets and pulled at her collar. She could see the bandage covering her shoulder in the warm orange lamp light. _So it's true._

Shay heard two people talking in the distance; it sounded like it was coming from right outside her door. The sound was just loud enough for her to understand what was being said, but too quiet to be able to recognize who was speaking. She could at least tell that they were two women.

"I know what the visiting hours are, Kendra. I used to work here, remember?"

"Then you should know that you're not allowed in there. You can come back tomorrow; she'll still be here." There was silence, and somehow the discomfort of the interaction permeated the walls and Shay could feel it.

"Room 217," said the first voice. Two words, said with such weary finality. Another pause followed.

"Fine, go in. But the patient needs some rest, so be quiet." Shay was suddenly feeling more awake than she had in hours. She listened intently to the soft click of the door opening. A stripe of painfully fluorescent light spilled across the floor. A dark silhouette crept into Shay's room, turned, and closed the door. It was dark again, with only the weak lamp beside Shay offering up any means of seeing through the darkness. She could barely tell the colors of skin and hair apart in the dimness. The visitor grabbed a chair by the wall and gingerly placed it closer to Shay's bedside. Whoever it was, their back was still to Shay, and they stood frozen there for several seconds. She heard a shaky intake of breath. Then, the figure turned and, now being much closer to Shay, her face could be seen. It was Allison.

"Rafferty?" Shay said, surprised. Her ex-partner practically leaped out of her skin.

"Shit! I didn't know you were awake," she recovered clumsily, hands gripping her own thighs while she stood stick-straight by Shay's bed. She cleared her throat and shifted uncomfortably for several seconds, until finally she seated herself. "What are you doing here so late?" Shay asked, squinting to make out Allison's face better.

"I meant to come earlier, but my fucking car was out of gas and I didn't realize until I was halfway here. Had to call a guy and everything. How are you feeling?"

Shay shrugged, then winced from the movement of her shoulder. "Tired, I guess. But not bad." Allison detected the small shock of pain and frowned. She leaned forward and gingerly reached toward Shay's shoulder. Her hands froze right above the collar of her gown, both women suddenly nervous. Allison swallowed back her anxiety and gently pulled the collar of Shay's gown back to get a look at her wound, just as Shay had done before. When she saw the bandage there, she asked Shay if she could pull it up to take a look. Shay just nodded and grit her teeth in preparation for whatever pain that might elicit. Fortunately, Allison's hands were gentle enough for Shay to feel nothing but the annoying acceleration of her own pulse. Rafferty replaced the bandage and tucked the gown back over Shay's collarbone.

"Looks good," she said, adding, "I guess the surgeons didn't botch it."

Shay snorted. "Damn, I would hope so."

Allison looked to Shay, mirroring none of the light humor the blonde wore. Even in the dim lighting, Shay could see that her brown eyes were beacons of some kind of inner turmoil that Shay did not understand. All of her other friends had been nothing but jolly and sweet, but here Allison was, looking more weary and depressed than Shay had ever seen her. "Allison?" Leslie asked.

The brunette leaned back in her seat, crossed her legs, and looked anywhere but at the hospitalized paramedic. Leslie paused, not knowing how to ask the question that hadn't even completely formulated in her own brain. She ended up saying, cautiously, "Room 217?"

Allison's eyes flickered when she understood that Leslie had overheard that bit of her and Kendra's conversation outside. A tangible feeling expanded around them, born from the gravity of the inquiry which Shay was unaware of. Allison's elbow propped up on her armrest, and she rested her head against her fist. "It's a long story," she said simply, voice devoid of the energy she would need to explain. This, however, wasn't good enough for Leslie.

"Come on, I wore this gown for you and you won't even indulge me in a little story?"

Rafferty chuckled. It was a light, tenuous sound, like if she laughed it might break something. The smile plastered on her face melted away slowly into a frown. She leaned forward in her seat, sitting her elbows on her knees. She stared at her hands, which were wringing themselves together, as she spoke.

"It's not a long story, actually," she began quietly. "This is the room my fiance was in."

A terrible feeling enveloped Shay. _Holy shit, I am laying in the bed her fiance died in!_ A shiver reverberated up and down her spine. "Raff, I'm sorry," she offered quietly. She was frustrated that she couldn't think of anything better to say. She reached over the edge of the bed. Her fingers brushed against Rafferty's folded hands.

"Thanks," Rafferty whispered. Shay had a feeling there would be no more witty retaliations from her old partner for a while. She was, of course, wrong. "But I'm the one who should be feeling sorry, for you. You must feel pretty incomplete without your flannel shirts." Shay laughed raucously, so pleasantly surprised by Allison's resilience, and gripped her hands like a vice. Allison yelped an exaggerated 'Ow, ow!', and when Shay softened her grip, the brunette took both of her own hands and cradled Shay's. Then, she stood up, leaned forward, and planted one kiss on Shay's forehead. "'Night, Shay. I'll see you later," she promised quietly. She released Shay's hand only when she replied with, "'Night. Thanks for visiting me... even if you had to muscle your way in here." Leslie saw the smile on Rafferty's face before she turned and crept quietly out of the room. Leslie fell asleep shortly after.

A/N: Please read and review. Keeps me motivated to continue this story.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I hope you liked the last chapter!**

Friends from the firehouse continued to visit Shay in the days leading up to her discharge. Fortunately, they arrived in twos or threes, which were much more manageable since Shay's injuries granted her a proclivity for sleeping. She could be entertained by her friends but never worn out. Conversely, not constantly socializing meant that she had more than enough time for an insufferable boredom to take over. For whatever reason, her idling mind almost always cycled into an onslaught of negative thoughts.

Upon waking up from a nap, Shay's mind would typically begin exhausting itself with residual images from her nightmares. On her fifth day in the hospital, she found herself reliving every tangible detail of Daryl's death. She saw the drops of perspiration that had collected on his face around each of the budding hairs of his stubble. She saw his confusing apologetic smile, felt the whirl of his stomach when he revealed the gun, and remembered the horrible understanding of her situation that had dawned on her seconds too late.

It was her mind's occupation to exhaust her with questions that required a significant amount of brain power to answer, which Shay was never willing to expend. She tried to distract herself from the complex thoughts by forcing simple thoughts upon herself. She listed off all the unhealthy foods she would indulge in once she got out of the hospital. The roster included many carbs and lots of alcohol. Of course, once she started imagining her dream burger, she remembered that day she and Clarice went to the burger joint on Granby, and her contentious brain demanded of her the answer to another unsatisfiable question: _Shay, why do you suck at relationships? _That's how it went for the last few days of Leslie's hospitalization: visitors, solitude, and exhaustive thinking.

By nighttime, she was usually worn out enough to be given up to sleep, the best time-killer of all. Every night since the first, Shay couldn't help but watch the door like a hopeful kid. Even though she told herself it was bad news to wish like this, she hoped to hear the quiet click of the doorknob and to see a brown bob of hair in the highlight of the open doorway.

**A/N: Thanks for reading, and as always, I'm a needy author looking for feedback. What can I do better? What did you like? Dislike? And, the most fun of all: what do you want to see in upcoming chapters?**


	5. Chapter 5

_Home, sweet home_ was the first thought Shay produced once she sunk into the soft abyssal sofa in her apartment. The short walk from the car to her apartment was a gift because of the restlessness of her legs and the crisp, clean air that she had missed dearly in the hospital. Severide followed in after, shutting the door and tossing his keys on the counter with a metallic _clink_. She listened as he popped open the fridge door and began to assemble some kind of snack for the two of them. Shay snatched up her phone, rolled on her back, and sifted through the information on her phone out of boredom. She noticed a text from Rafferty she didn't remember reading. She opened the message thread.

S: Rafferty, it's Kelly. Shay is in the hospital, thought you should know  
R: Is she okay? What happened?  
S: she got shot in the shoulder by some gangster. She's fine. She is out of surgery now, you should come see her  
R: You waited until now to tell me?  
S: had a lot on my mind. Chicago Med visiting hours end at 7  
R: Ok im on my way.

For whatever reason, Shay felt a little apprehensive seeing Kelly reach out to Allison on her behalf. Did he think she and Rafferty were close? Because they weren't— not really. They were partners, for a short stint, and it eventually became enjoyable, and Shay thought Rafferty was funny and kind of cute when she wasn't pretending to be a homophobe, but—

_Stop it, Shay,_ Leslie warned herself. Rather than tire herself out with these thoughts so soon, she fell over onto her side, sinking deeper into the couch cushions, and ignored Kelly when he asked if she wanted anything to drink. Right now, Shay just wanted some more sleep.

Shay woke up to the sound of something being set down on glass. She ignored the movement around her until she heard people talking about her. "How long has she been asleep?" Shay could tell who it was, even in her half-asleep fogginess. Peeling her eyes open, she saw Dawson standing over Shay with her arms crossed. She was looking at someone behind the couch. Severide's voice: "An hour or so."

"I'm awake," Shay muttered. In a catlike way, she stretched her limbs, arms poking out from the blanket someone had draped over her. Stretching felt amazing. Being in her own home on her comfy couch instead of in a dusty hospital room felt amazing. She buried her face in her pillow and was on her way back to unconsciousness when Dawson said, "Look what I made you" with a sing-song excitement that got Shay interested. Dawson had set down a wooden block on the glass plane coffee table in front of Shay. On the block was a domino line of crackers, an arrangement of small discs of bread with bruschetta, a block of fermented cheese (much to Shay's tastes), and slices of salami.

"Oh my cracker heaven," Shay murmured, boosting herself up and reaching toward the wooden block. Her hand lingered over the items as she debated on which one to indulge in first. She went for the bruschetta since it was already made and in no need of slicing or stacking. "Dawson, I love you," Shay praised, voice muffled by the food in her mouth. Dawson's smile was suspiciously complacent. Severide dropped into the cushion next to Shay. He picked up the knife and started to cut a few slivers of cheese. "Let me stack some up for you," Severide insisted. He arranged the salami and cheese in careful proportions on some of the crackers. Shay gratefully plucked them off the block and delivered them to her mouth.

"Hey, you want that fleece blanket you always like?" Severide asked, already standing. His thumb pointed behind him, toward the stairs. "I'll go get it for you."

Before a breath could pass, Dawson said, "You know, Casey and I are going shopping after shift, and I could totally get you one of those super plush pillows, you know the ones that are like sinking into a cloud."

With a slice of salami dangling out of her mouth, Shay looked up at her two friends with suspicious eyes. They were bristling with some kind of eagerness she did not understand... at first. Then it dawned on her.

"You guys are making a competition out of this!" she exclaimed. Dawson and Severide said nothing, but Shay smirked, feeling like she had just landed in a pile of gold, and stretched her legs out on the couch. She laid back dramatically, folding her arms neatly behind her head, and said, "I suppose I wouldn't object to a Pampering Duel." Her friends both cracked grins. Dawson playfully punched Severide in the bicep. Shay asked, "Who did the crackers?"

Gabriela practically yelled, "Me!" Kelly's mouth dropped open and, after a wordless noise came from his throat, he petitioned, "I cut the cheese for you!"

A maniacal cackle rose from Shay, making Kelly and Gabby lose it. Dawson was clutching her stomach and Kelly was bent over, leaning on the armrest, when Shay piped up, "Hey, hey! You have a blanket to fetch me. And you- my pillow, please!"

Around five in the evening, Shay was alone again. Dawson and Severide both had shift. Shay was feeling too strong to keep sleeping all day but still a little too wishy-washy to go out to enjoy herself. She thought of calling up some of her friends, but she realized that she didn't have many friends outside of her workmates. There was, however, one person who she was pretty sure wasn't working these days...

She hesitated with her thumb hovering over the screen of her cell phone. She _could _call Rafferty and invite her over for a hang-out sesh, but would that be crossing a line? They didn't really know each other that well, and it was hard for Shay to gauge the breadth of Rafferty's comfort zone. Shay knew how they had bantered in the ambo, eaten lunch together almost every day on the job, and of course she remembered how Rafferty had let her in a little bit with that hug in the laundry room. Still, Shay was doing that familiar thing where she made a big deal out of every social interaction with someone for one obvious reason: she was _totally _starting to crush on her straight ex-PIC partner.

She dropped her phone into her lap and shook her head. She pulled her knees up to her chest, propped her elbow on them, and kneaded her forehead with her fingers. She decided that she did not like relationships; her resumé these days was a total shit show. Clarice dumped her, took her back, and dumped her again; her whirlwind of random hook-ups after Daryl's death was nothing to be proud of, especially when someone robbed her new flat; and now, to top it all off, she could not help but gravitate towards a straight woman, and a work associate no less.

Leslie was about to discard her phone onto the coffee table when its screen lit up. The impersonal silhouette of someone who didn't have a contact photo flashed at her. _Allison Rafferty Calling. _A surreal feeling passed through Shay like a wind. The word 'serendipity' loitered around her brain.

"Hello?" Shay answered, her voice an awkward clash of simulated indifference and blatant surprise.

"Hey, it's Allison."

"What's up?"

"Nothing really, just... Hanging out, I guess. How are you doing? What're you up to?"

"Oh, y'know. Ironing my plaid shirts and going through the softball catalog I subscribe to." She didn't know much about Allison, but she had learned that she usually laughed at Shay's lesbian jokes. Shay especially enjoyed making them now that Shay knew the brunette wasn't actually such a homophobe. Now the jokes were a thing of friendship instead of just a way for them to tolerate each other. As desired, there was a laugh from the other end, which elicited a smile-turned-grin from Shay.

"Good one, but I was really asking. Are you busy?" There was a note of tentative optimism in Rafferty's voice.

"Not busy, no, but not suitable for the outside world either. I'm a bit of a mess; been asleep all day and eating moldy cheese."

"Ew, you're probably smelly then. You trying to deter me?"

"Nope, just trying to give you a glimpse of the glamour that is Leslie Shay." This was another joke successfully delivered, since Allison's quiet albeit genuine laugh crackled through the phone.

"I have a git for you- a big ol' rainbow banner, actually- and I was thinking about dropping it off. Is it cool if I swing by in a bit?"

Something hopeful fluttered in Shay's chest. She mentally chastised herself for so loving the fact that Allison wanted to come see her. "Sure. I'll text you my address."

**A/N: Yep. R/R please, let me know what you think, what you like/dislike, and what you want to see. I'm always accepting ideas in my inbox; in fact, I kind of need them at this point in the story.**

**Another thing for me to mention is that I have no idea how long this is going to end up being. In all honesty, I thought I was going to have it all wrapped up in five chapters but... clearly things aren't finished here. So yeah, please send me ideas if you have them :) Thanks for reading. I'll try to keep being good about updating but I probably won't get three chapters out in a day anymore haha.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: ***Update: Sorry, I messed up when I posted this chapter. It was the same thing repeated twice, with some things I forgot to take out in the second half. Jeez. Anyway, it's fixed now.**

Shay hung up the phone, suddenly determined to get her house in some kind of order. She tended to be a little self-conscious about the state of her home when she had guests over. Fortunately, she and Severide were really good about keeping their place in good shape most of the time. Still, Shay made the effort to fold up the fleece blanket and drape it neatly over the back of the couch. Then she cleaned off the wooden block and set it in the sink next to a couple of cups and forks, and stacked the magazines and mail on the end table next to the sofa. Her bare feet brushed over the rug between the TV and the sofa. She examined it and decided it had been vacuumed recently enough.

The next thing to tidy up was herself. She was about to climb the stairs to get to her room when her phone buzzed. Shay realized she forgot to send her address at all.

Rafferty: 'Do I need to call my people to find out where you live?'

Shay smiled into her phone and typed back her address with an apology. 'Sorry, got distracted by something. When do you think you'll be here?'

Rafferty was much more prompt. 'Probably around six. Is that cool?'

Shay checked the time. It was 5:20. She could make it. She typed back a confirmation quickly and then set her phone down on the table. She hurried upstairs to make herself presentable. She sifted through her wardrobe to find something simple and comfortable to wear; it would be suspicious if she got dressed up to have Rafferty over. She selected a pair of dark leggings and a navy blue shirt, then hurried into the shower. When she took her shirt off in front of the bathroom mirror, she saw the mark on her shoulder from the gunshot. A straight jasper line from the inciscion speared a vaguely crescent-shaped mark, the outline of the bullet. Shay's fingers slid over the marks. By touch, they couldn't be differentiated from the rest of her alabaster skin. It wasn't hard to see, though. She hoped it wasn't a scar; she didn't want to have to look at that mark forever. It held no singular meaning to her life or her soul. It was just a reminder that some asshole shot her for a man-load of cocaine. She frowned at the glass, then stepped into the shower.

Allison pulled her SUV into a parking space in front of the building Shay designated. She craned her neck to look out the passenger seat window at Shay's building. It had a dark brick front. Judging by the bright checkering of windows, Rafferty figured most of the residents were awake.

She leaned back into her seat and flipped down the visor. The automatic lights on the sides of the mirror lit up, illuminating Rafferty's skin in an unflattering yellow light. She frowned at her complexion, but told herself she'd look better in indoors lighting. She ran her fingers through her hair quickly, then checked her eyeliner. Part of it had rubbed off over her right eye. She huffed impatiently and dug through her purse for her eyeliner. She wasn't trying to doll herself up just to go see her friend, but she wanted to look at least half-decent. Okay, she wanted to make a good impression.

Meanwhile, Shay was debating with her own eye makeup. She didn't want to look like she was trying too hard, but she didn't want to look like a wreck, either. She applied the lightest eyeliner she could, sticking to the natural curves of her eyes rather than embellishing them too much. She was satisfied when she looked in the mirror; her eyes held extra attention without being dramatic.

Shay put her things away neatly and strode across her bedroom. "6:01" glowed green on the clock next to her bed. She stood next to her window and eased the drapes back, looking out on the street below. Chicago turned grey and blue by this hour. When the streetlamps flickered on, pools of warm light diffused into the sidewalk. There was a black SUV in front of her building. Shay could faintly make out pale skin wrapped inside the darkness in the vehicle. She didn't realize who it was until the door popped open and a brown bob of hair rose out.

Shay met Rafferty at the door. She pulled it open to find Allison standing in front of it with her hand poised to knock. She looked surprise. "Been waiting?" she asked, amused. Shay motioned with her head for the other woman to enter, saying, "Nah, I heard you pull up." She felt a small twang of embarrassment despite the more-or-less honest answer.

Allison stepped inside. She was wearing a dark blue pea coat. A small black bag hung over her shoulder. "I can take your coat," Shay offered, choosing that moment to turn around and shut the door. When she looked back toward her guest, Rafferty was smirking anyway.

"What a gentleman." She unlooped the buttons on her coat and shrugged it off. It was a well-fitted coat, but the size of her frame was considerably smaller without it. She handed Shay her coat and purse with a "Thank you." Shay hung it by the door and placed her bag on a lower shelf.

They went into the kitchen. Shay asked if she would like anything to drink. "Do you have any tea?" Allison asked. Shay told her so and filled a kettle with water, placing it on the stove to boil. Allison watched her, leaning into the side of the counter and idling her fingers against the granite top- or rather, what looked like granite to Allison; she didn't really know her counter-tops.

Shay turned back to Allison while the tea heated. She leaned forward, elbows propped up on the counter and hands folded together next to her cheek. "So, what have you been up to these days?" she asked casually.

Raferty shrugged. "Nothing, really. I have way too much free time and no idea how to spend it."

"And so you're here," Shay said, not bitterly but with a humorous smile.

"No, no, I wanted to see how you were doing," Allison promised, catching her mistake. Shay just laughed at the brunette's discomfort and uttered a doubtful, '_Uh-huh._' Allison grabbed a towel off the counter and tossed it playfully at Shay, who scrunched up to catch it. "I'm serious!" Allison insisted with a laugh.

"Okay, okay, I suppose I believe you," Shay replied humorously. She dropped the towel back on the counter, not bothering to fold it up. "Besides hanging out with little ole me, what are your plans for the rest of your time off?" She decided not to call it a suspension.

Rafferty shrugged. "I don't know. I started working out more, but I've never been crazy about that. What else... Oh, yesterday I finally got caught up on some shows, y'know, really pulling myself together in my time off." Both women chuckled. "It's been a boring suspension," she said, just a little bit quieter. There was a somber eclipse in her eyes. It all sounded rather lonely to Shay, and she felt a twinge of sympathy for the banned paramedic.

The clock above the stove caught Shay's eyes, and an idea came to her. "Are you hungry? It's pretty much dinnertime; we could go find a place to eat."

Allison paused. She liked Leslie quite a bit— a lot, actually— but she had grown to find socialization very tiring. All of her old friends had also been her fiance's friends, and since his death they all tip-toed around her like she was an injured deer. She had completely distanced herself from friends, and as pathetic as it sounded, she was a bit out of practice when it came to going out.

She looked up at Shay, whose eyes were stunning blue rings around black bullets. She wouldn't mind seeing them over the breadth of a dinner table. Besides, things were different with Shay; Shay hadn't known her before, so there were no piteous platitudes to ruin their time together. Rafferty surprised herself when she said, with cheerful conviction, "You know what, that sounds good to me."

"Cool," Shay said with fabricated nonchalance. She had grown nervous in the elongated time between her question and Allison's answer, but now she was looking forward to getting out, especially with Allison to accompany her. There was a lot Shay was curious about when it came to her suspended PIC. She secretly cherished every interaction they had because she would learn some detail about Rafferty in them. There was still a lot she didn't know about Rafferty (What kind of music did she like? What kind of person was she in high school?), and to top it all off, the brunette was a fun to be around, too.

"I guess we'll get our coats, then," Shay said. Rafferty laughed and went to go retrieve the article she had just taken off a minute ago while Shay took the water off the stove.

**A/N: Haven't I been so good about updating? Ha... Not sure how that will go in the week ahead. Regardless, thanks for reading. R/R and, if you want, send me some ideas. You can check out my profile for my Tumblr page.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I have no idea if Shay is a vegetarian or anything but let's pretend not for the sake of this story.**

The two of them stood outside of Shay's building. The cold wind blundered past them like a rude pedestrian. Allison flipped up the collar of her coat to partially protect her face from the weather. Shay pulled the furry hood of her parka over her head.

"Mind if we drive?" Rafferty asked, nodding toward her black SUV.

"That sounds great," Shay said against the wind. Rafferty reached in her pocket. Her car unlocked with a small beep, and they hurriedly climbed inside. The leather was cold underneath them. Shay pressed her legs together and warmed her hands in the space under her thighs.

Rafferty turned the ignition on, and the vehicle came to life with an assuring rumble. It also resumed the last song she had been listening to. Shay paused while she tried to conjure up the name of the familiar tune.

"_2016_?" Shay asked, looking at the brunette.

"Yeah, that's right. You like it?"

Shay nodded. "Sure. Don't usually listen to it unless I'm contemplating life in a dark room, though." This earned a getle laugh from Allison, who changed the song. Something more lighthearted hummed quietly through the speakers.

She turned to Shay and asked where she would like to go to eat. "I'm not really dressed for anything fancy, though," she mentioned. Shay gestured at her own casual getup; neither was she. Allison suggested, "There are a ton of places to eat on Granby."

"Oh, true. I know a place there that makes amazing burgers."

"A meat lover," Rafferty said with a smile of adoration, "A woman after my own heart. I know the place you're talking about." She pressed her palm against the wheel and pulled out of her space, making her way toward the next checkpoint of traffic lights. Shay managed to restrain the smile tugging at her lips. _A woman after my own heart. _She abstained from making it into a gay joke because it was such an endearing statement.

"I had a list of everything I wanted to eat once I got out of the hospital," Shay mentioned, hoping to avoid a silent car ride. Sometimes the ambo would go quiet when they were on duty together, and although Shay certainly didn't mind a bit of silence now and then, this was their time off; she was determined to make the most of it.

"Oh?" Allison said. "I'm guessing burgers were on that list?"

"Yep. Burgers and fries and ice cream and Greek food and... pretty much anything but hospital pudding."

It was meant to be a joke, but Allison just nodded, her lips taut. "Lakeshore's food is terrible, I know. It's part of the reason why our long-term patients don't have much of an appetite." Shay detected something personal in Allison's voice. She mentally chastised herself for bringing up the hospital where her fiance spent his last who knows how many months, and felt a shudder of guilt when she thought of how she was hospitalized in his room.

As if Rafferty could read Shay's mind, she said at that exact moment, "He wasn't in 217 when he died." They were at a stop light, so she looked toward Shay. Shay looked back. The traffic light dyed Rafferty's skin a deep cherry color. "He was there for a while, but eventually they moved him to Oncology, and then he came home with me." Their eyes held each other like two intertwined hands. Shay couldn't think of what to say. She couldn't look away, either.

Allison's skin went from red to green, and somehow that freed them both from their eye contact. Allison turned forward and stepped on the gas, ignoring the nervous prickle in the base of her neck. Shay felt guilty for being relieved about not having been in her late fiance's hospital bed. She was also embarrassed for being at a loss for words and, if she was being honest, breath. Something about that moment— perhaps the bare honesty about what was normally off-limits territory for Allison— had paralyzed Shay. Neither of them had ever brought up Allison's fiance following that day in the laundry room, except for when Shay inquired about the significance of Room 217. Shay figured Allison would bring it up if she wanted to talk about it, but really Rafferty only mentioned it because she could sense the other woman's discomfort. She had gotten pretty good at noticing when people were walking carefully around something, and that something was usually the subject of her engagement-turned-funeral.

Despite the discomfort of the situation, Shay's heart ached enough for her friend to spur her to say something. She considered renewing her offer to listen if Allison ever wanted to talk about it, but in the spirit of fun and levity, she took a different approach. "Rafferty... what kind of car is this?" she asked, already knowing.

Allison answered before she could understand the playful lilt in Shay's question. "It's a Subaru Tri—" Shay was snickering behind her hood. Allison shook her head and joined in on the laughter. She playfully swatted at Shay's shoulder, wondering if a touch that cursory could communicate the appreciation she felt for Shay's ability to lighten a heavy situation.

They were still laughing while Allison pulled her car into a parking space in front of the Granby burger restaurant. The engine went to sleep, leaving the two of them in an unusual but not uncomfortable silence. Shay smiled and said, with her door on the handle, "Be prepared to watch me eat copious amounts of food."

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think and, more importantly, have a nice day/evening.**

**PS: If you're curious about the song, it's '2016' by Aunt Martha.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thank you guest reviewer for pointing out the different between EMT and paramedic to me. I've edited the story accordingly. :)**

The Silver Platter was a nice enough restaurant. The name was too cheesy for it to be anything high-end, but it suited the two paramedic's tastes for the evening. Rafferty had held the door open for Shay, which was a surprisingly gallant gesture that Shay forced herself to believe was just Allison being friendly. She raised an eyebrow in amusement and smiled at the unexpected gesture. She did not tease beyond that, for Rafferty rolled her eyes and grumbled jocosely, "Oh, just walk through the door!"

Upon entering the establishment, the two took in the atmosphere. It was a comfortable mix of clean, casual, and cozy. The floors were wooden, well-maintained but not too polished, and the lighting was just bright enough to avoid being obviously romantic but dark enough to maintain some level of intimacy. Elegantly simple paper lanterns hung from the ceiling and cast an orange glow on the black surfaces the dozen-or-so patrons dined on. There was a constant buzzing chatter that filled the air. The aroma was not distinctly anything, either, but rather the blended emission of the tasty foods being consumed. It made the two women's stomachs rattle emptily.

Most of the people sat in leather booths along the perimeter of the room, though there were some tables secluded by frosted glass half-walls that reflected the lights in a manner reminiscent of melting ice. When an employee in a startlingly emerald dress shirt approached, Allison requested to be seated at a table, rather than a booth. She glanced toward Shay, who nodded. "Absolutely," the server said. The server's brown eyes hopped from Leslie to Allison and back again, and something like a smile plucked at the corners of her lips, almost imperceptibly. Shay noted the detail but did not know what to make of it. The server led them to a more private corner of the restaurant that was vacant of any other patrons. Shay maybe would have pulled Allison's seat out for her, just to imitate her funny courtesy at the door, but the server had made her a little self-conscious. She took her own seat quietly and stole a look at the server while Allison was ordering a drink. The woman in emerald was very familiar; Shay was certain she had taken note of that tanned face and those dark eyebrows, though she was unsure of where and when.

Allison had ordered a glass of wine and was now asking Shay if she'd like some. Shay took a short moment to realize she was being asked a question because she had been, in the course of only a few seconds, intently examining the server's face in hopes of recognizing her. This bore an inexplicably poignant annoyance within Allison, though she hid it well. "Oh, sure, that sounds good," Shay said, eyes now directed toward Allison, who gave an unintentionally unsettling smile. The server glimpsed once more at Shay before hurrying off.

"You know her?" Allison questioned.

"I don't know," Shay said, her brow dipping in thought. "She seems vaguely familiar, and I think she recognizes me, too—"

"That would explain all the looks," Rafferty interjected before she could stop herself. Her tone was uncharacteristically tart, which surprised both Shay and herself. She internally reprimanded herself for her outburst, not only because Shay shifted uncomfortably in her seat but because it was indicative of her unexpected jealousy. _Why do I care?_ Allison asked herself.

She swallowed something back and hid herself in her menu. Several seconds of silence passed. Shay hadn't still said anything, which spurred Rafferty to look up at her from the list of pastas. Shay was not even looking at her menu but instead at nothing in particular in the distance. Her face took on a stumped expression, her teeth gnawing at her lip in thought. Allison observed the movement. Shay's lips were very pink against the flash of her ivory front teeth. It was a simple, minimal motion, but Allison was captivated by it. She watched for several seconds until the pattern Shay's mouth moved in changed; her mouth opened slightly, forming the letter O, as if words were about to come out of it, and Rafferty was thrown fearfully from her trance. She made sure Shay had not seen her watching, then pretended to be looking over the menu again.

"You know what?" Shay said. Rafferty looked up, eyebrows raised, as if she didn't know Shay was going to speak.

"What?" Allison said, clearing her throat against the lump that had formed in it.

"I'm pretty sure— I think I've kissed our sever." There was a humorous lilt in her voice, and she expected to see an equally entertained look on Rafferty's face. Rafferty did not, however, reciprocate; she looked utterly indifferent, and there was something suspicious about that. Something Shay could not name seemed to hover just behind the surface of Allison's dark eyes, like a person peering through the drapes in a window. "I'm not exactly sure, but I think that I might have... I must have been drunk, and I remember it being dark."

"Was this at Molly's?" Allison asked, almost hiding the inquisitiveness of her voice.

Shay nodded, and then her forehead relaxed as a detail came back to her. "Yeah, yeah, it was at Mollys," she said with distinct certainty, "and she made this comment about me being the bartender."

A pause. "What was the comment?"

Shay finally looked toward Allison. She smirked, then shrugged and picked up her menu for the first time. She had a gut feeling she made the right move, leaving her and the waitress's affairs a mystery. Allison shifted in her seat and tried to reinvest herself in her menu. Her hand scratched the skin right above her eyebrow, then rested in her lap, then rubbed at the back of her neck, then fidgeted at the edge of the table. Shay was not completely sure of it, but she was leaning towards the idea that Rafferty's noticeable discomfort wasn't merely because Shay was divulging information about her romantic antics. She wanted to be sure, though. Fortunately, the server returned at that exact moment with two glasses of wine.

Rafferty watched curiously. Shay raised her head and issued a warm "Thank you" as the woman in emerald set her drink down. "Hey, Gina," she said, catching the waitress's name fom her silver nameplate, "What do you think of Molly's?"

To Leslie's well-concealed relief, the waitress named Gina became noticably pleased. She set down Rafferty's drink at that moment and said, with her head tilted toward Shay, "It's been a while since I've been, but I had a... lovely time." The waitress gave Shay a quick wink, then remembered Allison. She straightened up quickly and poised her pen over her pad of paper. "Anyway, do you ladies know what you'd like to have this evening?" she asked with a nervous waver in her voice.

Not a lot of time had passed since Shay and Rafferty had their menus, though they were both hungry enough for just about anything to suit them. Shay ordered a hamburger and Rafferty picked out a deliciously advertised pasta. Gina scribbled down their orders and took their menus. Shay said a quick "Thanks" while Allison only nodded. The waitress hurried off again.

Rafferty took a sip of her wine, set it down, and murmured, "Well, that was a little awkward."  
Shay laughed over her glass and said, with her pink lips hovering at the rim, "I'd be lying if you didn't seem a little jealous."  
Allison waited for Shay to set her glass down before kicking her leg.

In the time before their food arrived, the two talked about a variety of topics. The first, following Allison's attack under the table, was about the physical altercations they had been involved in throughout life. Allison said the only time she ever hit someone with the intention of causing them pain was in high school. Apparently she had kicked a guy named Trevor in the groin in defense of one of her friends. This led to Shay making a joke and Allison assuring her she hadn't done it because of "sapphic desires." Even Shay cringed at the word she regretted using in her joke— "sapphic"— and just to forget about it, she talked about the last time she had been involved in a violent situation.

"Well, this one time I got shot at," she joked, taking another sip of wine. Rafferty had been laughing heartily up until that point. Her merriment faltered, but she forced an artificial chuckle out in a failed attempt to avoid killing the mood. Shay regretted making the joke instantly, and mentally asked herself why she had to be such an idiot.

"Sorry, that was a bad joke. Are you okay?" she asked, watching Allison's fingers rub against the neck of her glass.

"I should be the one asking you that," she answered. She became suddenly aware of how close they were sitting together. There couldn't be more than a couple inches between their feet.

"You sure about that?"

A sigh escaped through Allison's nose. She frowned and said, "You talk so lightly about it, but getting shot is a big deal." She dipped her head toward the blonde and made emphatic eye contact. "You've gotta be bothered by it, even if you're all patched up now. And I was worried." The last statement caused a tiny crack in the steadiness of Allison's voice, which in turn made a poignant laceration to Shay's heart. Shay reached the small distance across the table. Her hand curled around the hand Allison had around the base of her glass, and Allison was reminded of a similar gesture they shared in the hospital. On the one hand, she was deeply embarrassed to have earned Shay's sympathy; this was, after all, supposed to be a fun dinner and she didn't want to spoil it with her own emotionalism. She also seemed more bothered by the GSW incident than Shay herself. On the other hand, she was pleasantly surprised by the gesture, enough to remove her hand from the glass to cradle Shay's in return.

"It was just to the shoulder," Shay assured her.

In a quiet, tenuous voice Shay had never heard before, Allison said, "People have died from less." The unexpected gravity of that statement made wide ripples in the ensuing silence. Allison examined the image of her hand wrapped around Shay's. Shay followed her eyes and watched as Allison's finger rubbed over the bumps of her knuckles before coming to a sudden stop.

Allison became suddenly aware of the song playing over the speakers. She recognized the song, not well enough to know the name of it, but to know that she had heard it before.

_'It's easy to fall in love, It's easy to fall in love with you.'_

A realization burst within Allison, and she withdrew her hand. She brought her drink to her mouth and took more than a few sips before setting it down again. Leslie's heart rate had accelerated, and the spot on her hand that Allison touched started to burn. Shay also took a long drink. The moment was simply too much for her to not attend to, so she was planning on saying something, though she had no idea what. Anything was better than the silence, though, so she began to blabber.

"Look, what you say is true. I was lucky; lucky that I got hit in the shoulder, and lucky that I had an ambulance and a capable paramedic right next to me. The cops were a lucky draw, too, though to be honest they could have shown up sooner." She took a deep breath. "I'm fine, though. Completely. I'm just sorry it's continuing to bother you." She smiled persistently, and after a moment, Rafferty smiled back. She laughed, a sudden chuckle that was eager to escape the clutches of her anxiety. She rubbed her face tiredly, then cradled her jaw and looked across the table at the blonde.

"Thanks. Man, I didn't mean to get all... I don't know, I just don't want to spoil dinner." Shay was about to insist that she wasn't spoiling dinner at all, but Rafferty added, "Speaking of dinner, here's our food, finally." Gina had appeared, a green blur in the corner of their vision that neither Allison nor Leslie were bothered by at this point. They dove into their food hungrily. Neither had realized exactly how starved they were until they started eating. They shared their food and ate almost everything. In the end, the burger was simply too massive to fit in Leslie's stomach, famished as she was, and Allison abandoned a sizable portion of the pasta.

"Holy shit, that was good," Leslie murmured, leaning back in her seat. Allison nodded in agreement and said, "I think I'm going into a food coma." Leslie laughed. They engaged in a lighthearted conversation about nothing in particular. Having food in their bellies must have been the secret to avoiding emotionally heavy topics all along.

Eventually, the waitress returned with the bill. Allison reached for the leather envelope. "My gift to you," she insisted.

Shay shook her head and leaned forward, elbows on the table. "If you pay, that makes it a date," she said with a smirk and a cocked eyebrow. Allison laughed in response. It was a pleasant, insouciant sound. Allison shrugged, flashed an undaunted smile, and placed the envelope back on the table with the appropriate payment inside. Shay expressed her gratitude sincerely, and Allison was feeling very pleased with herself for treating the woman across from her.

**A/N: The song was "The John Wayne" by Little Green Cars. I don't actually associate the lyrics with Shafferty, but I thought that particular line fit here.**

**Anyway, please review after you read. It makes this a lot more fun for me, and it motivates me to write more and write often. I really want to know if you guys enjoyed the chapter and how you feel about what happened.**


	9. Chapter 9

It was 1 am, and Shay was listening to Hermann tell her all about his son's last little league game. She walked around the empty bar retrieving abandoned glasses while Hermann was washing some at the sink. Shay wasn't terribly interested in what her friend was telling her, but she listened attentively anyway. The only thing he said that was amusing to her was the fact that another kid's dad had initiated a fight with him.

"Wow, the parents are getting crazy over that stuff already? How old's your kid?"

"He's nine," Hermann said, matching Shay's incredulousness. "These people, man. They're absolutely insane."

Shay nodded in agreement and set the last of the glasses on the counter next to Hermann. There were at least twelve more that he had to wash, plus the counters and tables had to be wiped down again. She checked her watch and realized how late it was. "Hermann, want me to finish up here?" she offered, gesturing toward the time. Hermann knew how late it was already. He opened his mouth to decline, but Shay insisted. "You have a family to get home to. Plus, it sounds like you might have to kick someone's ass at the next Little League game. You should get some rest."

Christopher laughed and shut the sink off. He leaned on his hands as he internally debated if it would be okay to leave Shay with all the work. Shay saw his mouth bend into that crooked frown like it always did before he said no to something. Before he could reject her offer, she said, "It's not a big deal, man. I'll be done in no time."

Hermann smiled and reached across the sink to pat her on the shoulder. "Thanks, Shay. You're a good kid." Shay dodged the compliment with some lighthearted joke, though she'd be lying if she didn't admit that his comment made her smile. She watched him grab his coat and go, stopping to wave goodnight before he stepped out into the velveteen darkness of Chicago nighttime.

The first thing Shay did when she was alone was switch off some of the lights, which had begun to give her a headache in the last couple of hours. Then, she made her way to the jukebox and found a song she liked. She pushed some quarters in and, with shameless excitement, listened to the opening sounds of _Wine And Chocolates_. She danced her way behind the bar and flipped on the sink, feeling the warm water brush over her pale hands while she scrubbed the glasses clean. She bobbed back and forth to the song.

She heard her phone calling for her attention from her back pocket. She sighed and withdrew her hands from the warm water to dry them on the nearest towel. She checked her phone.

_Hey, are you at Molly's_? — Rafferty.

Shay smiled and typed back.

_Yep, all by myself. I sent Hermann home._

Shay held her phone in her hands after she sent the text, waiting for Rafferty's typical prompt response. However, Allison didn't send anything back. Shay waited a whole minute before she retired her phone to the counter and continued washing the glasses. She wondered why Allison had decided not to text her back. Maybe she was considering dropping into Molly's, but didn't want to be alone with Shay; it wouldn't be much of a social visit. Shay shrugged the thought away; _Maybe she's just occupied right now. Or unconscious_, she appended, remembering how late it was.

Just when she decided Allison must have fallen asleep, she heard a quiet tapping on the door. The sound was sudden, and it sent a startling bolt toward Shay, who dropped a glass in the sink with a loud _clink_. Shay peered through the darkness toward the door, where she saw someone's face inches away from the glass. A hand was raised next to their face, and it was waving at Shay. She moved around the counter slowly and cautiously, squinting to see who it was before she got too close. That's when she recognized who it was.

"Hey, Allison," Leslie murmured, pulling the door open. She did not expect to see the brunette. "What're you doing here?"

Allison moved past the doorway. Shay noticed she was wearing a purple track jacket and sneakers. "I was on a run and thought I'd stop by," she huffed, her breathing a little irregular from the exercise. Shay took a moment to fully understand what was said to her.

"You were _on a run_? It's like, one-thirty!" She shot Allison an incredulous look.

"Yeah?" Allison called from a barstool.

Shay shut the door and strode toward Allison, who was spinning back and forth in her seat. Shay stopped next to her and stared directly at Allison until she stopped spinning and looked back. "Raff, that's not safe," she stated seriously. Rafferty's face held a small amount of confusion before her eyes cast down and her mouth forced itself into a nervous smile.

"Alright, that's true. It was dumb of me, but I was restless and I couldn't sleep," she explained, the words practically flying out of her mouth. She dug her elbows into the bar. Her hands clutched her head. She suddenly looked utterly exhausted. Shay dropped her arms from her hips and, seeing the sudden change in Allison's demeanor, wondered what the cause of it was. She plopped down in the stool to Rafferty's right and crossed her arms on the bar. She rested her head on top of her arms like a pillow and looked at the other woman. Rafferty looked straight ahead at first, unsuccessfully feigning interest in the stacks of bottles in the glass cabinets behind the bar. Then, she turned toward Shay and made eye contact. For the dozenth time, Shay took special note of that particular shade of brown in Rafferty's eyes.

"Not sleeping, huh?" Leslie said. She reached across the counter and grabbed a glass she had just cleaned. She dropped it in front of Allison and slid an almost-empty bottle of copper alcohol over. "Maybe this'll help."

"I fuckin' hope so," Allison muttered, tipping the bottle into her glass. She lifted the drink up and tilted her head back, downing it in just a few gulps. She was very aware of the loud sound her glass made when she set it down. "Where's your glass?" she asked Leslie.  
"I'm not drinking, 'cause I'm going to be driving you home."

"Hey, you don't have to do that. I'll be fine."

"Yeah, yeah, just finish off the rest of the free booze I'm offering," Leslie replied. Allison had no objections; she poured out the rest of the bottle's contents and lifted it to her lips again. She eyed Leslie over the rim of her glass for a few seconds, perhaps trying to communicate something Leslie couldn't quite understand, before knocking the drink back.

Shay stood up from her seat and made her way to the other side of the bar. She resumed washing the glasses, taking Allison's with her and discarding the empty bottle in a bucket under the counter. Allison asked if Shay needed any help, but Shay shook her head. Allison mimicked Shay's earlier behavior with Hermann and insisted that she help out somehow. "Y'know, since I got a free drink and all," she added with a laugh.

Shay relented and handed Allison a rag and a spray bottle to wipe the tables with. Allison scooted out of her seat and and made her way to the nearest table. They worked wordlessly for five minutes, maybe. The only sound was the persistent hushing of the running facuet, the occasional dainty clink of the glasses being set on the dish rack, and the rubber of Allison's sneakers gripping the hardwood floors as she went from table to table. Shay was the first to speak, and she was asking a question. "So why can't you get the snoozies?"

Allison's first answer was a snort, accompanied by an enthusiastic chuckle. "Did you just call it the _snoozies_?" Shay gave a nonchalant shrug and a grin. She let Allison avoid the question only as long as her laughter lasted. When it ended, it was heavily silent in that dim bar. Shay had shut the water off and put the last glass off to the side. Allison was still wiping tables in the far corner. She sighed.

"I... can't say," was her answer, and she seemed to regret it as soon as it fell out of her mouth. She looked up from her rag and gave Shay an apologetic look from across the room. Shay's eyebrow dipped in confusion.

"Well, that's cryptic." Allison nodded in agreement and strode to the bar, setting the rag next to the sink. She shrugged.

"It's nothing, I've just had a restless mind from this lack of working," Rafferty said. It was only half a lie. Shay left the matter alone, picking up on the fact that Rafferty didn't want to get into it and was trying to communicate this as kindly as possible. Shay nodded in acceptance and drummed her fingers on the countertop.  
"Well, shall we go then?" Rafferty nodded. Shay grabbed her parka off the hook by the door and exited with Allison.

The wind was waltzing through the streets in some bearable state between fervor and laziness. Still, it was quite cold, and Shay was quick about directing Rafferty toward the car parked just a few yars away from Molly's. It was Kelly's car. Shay popped open the shotgun seat door for Rafferty, flashing her a mischievous grin over the top of it. It was her latest move in their funny game of _Who Can Be More Chivalrous?_ Allison jokingly shook her fist at the blonde and muttered, "Damn you!"

"Where do you live?" Shay asked as Rafferty ducked in.

"501 Fledgling."

Shay nodded and gently pushed the door shut. She hurried around the front of the car and got into the driver's seat. Shay fished the car keys out of her jacket and was about to put them in the ignition when she felt Allison's hand curl desperately over her wrist. Her wintry blue eyes went to Allison, whose mouth hung open slightly and whose eyes refused to meet Shay's. Shay wanted to ask but she didn't know what she would be asking, exactly.

An ominous feeling whirled around in Allison's gut. It grew heavier at the thought of her being driven back to her home on Fledgling Drive, the very one she had just literally run away from an hour ago. "I don't think I can sleep there tonight," Allison whispered finally. Her voice sounded painfully unsafe. She released Shay and fell back into her seat. She looked out her window at an uninteresting fire hydrant, simply because she couldn't muster up the power to look at Shay.

"Hey, what's up, Raff?" Shay asked gently.

"Nothing," Allison automatically insisted. Her voice was suddenly very hard. Shay nearly recoiled at the sudden change from heartrendingly vulnerable to agitated. Allison's hand went to the door handle. Before Shay could protest, it fell back into Allison's lap, where it mingled uncomfortably with her other hand. Shay watched those ten fingers cross and uncross restlessly before reaching out to cloak them with her own. It was an instinctive move, not anything Shay had planned, and for a moment she panicked over the idea that the gesture might spook Rafferty out of the car. Rafferty let out a big breath she had been holding. She looked down at her lap, where all three hands were. Her thumb started to stroke Shay's knuckle, and Leslie felt a twinge of pleasant familiarity.

The two of them stayed like that for some measure of time neither could guess at. Shay's eyes went back and forth between their hands and Allison's face, though Allison was transfixed on the hands only. Leslie gratefully accepted the moment to explore the curve of Allison's forehead, the bridge of her nose, and the shape of her cheekbones. She took note of the attractiveness of the brunette's profile, which was a soft brown silhouette in the darkness.

A lock of hair slid out of place and fell into the corner of Allison's eyes. She reflexively removed her hand from under Shay's to push her hair back behind her ears, though she regretted the movement because it had unintentionally ended their moment of silent intimacy. Shay snapped out of her reverie and was suddenly aware of the stiff, constricting feeling in her throat. She gently pulled her hand back so she could start the engine. The car seemed to clear its throat as it came on. Shay gripped the wheel, perhaps a little too tightly, as she pulled out of her parking space.

"You can stay at my place tonight," Shay offered. She knew Allison didn't want to go home, and though she wasn't exactly sure why she speculated that the house might hold some unhappy memories for her, perhaps the same memories that could be keeping her up all night. She looked toward the brunette for approval. Allison nodded.

"Thanks, Shay." Leslie knew Allison meant it sincerely.

"No problem, no problem."

Allison courteously waited a few seconds before saying, in a jokingly stern voice, "But just so you know, I'm not putting out."

Shay was laughing so hard, she missed her turn.

**Thank you for reading. Please remember to review (keeps me motivated to write the next chapter), and thank you to all of you who do review. How very sweet.**

**I'd say I'm sorry for the slow build-up to Shafferty but that would be a lie ;)**

**Shout out to maximinaluca, who really spurred me to get going on this chapter. It's awesome to know you were so interested in finding out what happens next in this fic. :)  
**

**Hope you all have a lovely day.**


	10. Chapter 10

It had been at least seven days since Rafferty had first been to Shay's place. They were quiet about coming in since Kelly was sleeping somewhere upstairs. It was completely black on the first floor of Leslie's home except for the dim glow of the stove clock, which read 2:03 AM. Shay flicked on one light hanging over the kitchen counter. Warm light spilled from the bulb, and Shay and Allison flocked to it like moths. Shay went to getting some tea made for them, and Allison was reminded of the first time Shay made that offer. They didn't end up drinking any of it, from what Allison remembered, since they had gone out to dinner so soon. This time they would sit down and chat for a while, albeit in whispers to avoid waking Kelly.

Leslie set down a steaming cup in front of Allison, who was leaning her hip into the counter. She nodded in thanks and picked up the warm ceramic, letting the steam twirl against her face. It made her sleepy.

"So we have an extra toothbrush somewhere," Shay whispered over her mug, "And you can borrow some of my clothes and whatever else you need."

"Cool, thanks," Allison said. She went to take a sip of her tea, only for it to scald her tongue. Her face contorted in a jolt of pain. She set the mug down as quickly as she could without spilling it over her fingers. Shay looked distantly concerned, but then joined in on Allison's laughter. "Trying to kill me?"

Shay shrugged. "I dunno, maybe," she joked. Allison grinned.

Shay left her in the kitchen and tiptoed upstairs to find the things Allison would need for the night. Allison took the moment to peruse the first floor of the apartment. She kept the lights off, so she was careful about maneuvering around the various pieces of furniture she could make out in the darkness. She ran her fingers along the back of the couch that was propped in front of the flatscreen TV. The sofa was leather, which Allison liked. There was an end table next to it with various magazines, the titles of which Allison couldn't make out, and something that felt like crisp like a plant. There were two remotes and a stack of coasters on the coffee table and a hardcover book. Allison was curious about the title of the book. She brought it with her to the light above the kitchen stove to see what it was. It was a history book called "Women In Medicine." She briefly considered that it might belong to Kelly, but she figured it would make more sense for it to be Shay's.

When she heard quiet movements at the top of the stairs, she returned the book to its place on the coffee table and seated herself on the couch. Shay flipped on another light. It was a jarring change, and Allison's eyes jammed shut instinctively. Shay winced, too, and muttered an apology as she walked over. She handed Allison a small bundle of supplies wrapped up in a t-shirt. There was a new toothbrush still in the cardboard/plastic packaging, a small container of floss, and a pair of black gym shorts. The shirt had the words "Florence and the Machine" stretched across the chest.

Allison looked up from the materials and saw that Shay had already gotten ready to go to sleep. Her makeup was wiped off, her hair was tied back in a loose bun, and she was now wearing comfortable clothing similar to the ones she just loaned to Rafferty. "You can change in my bathroom. C'mon, I'll show you where it is." The two of them ascended the stairs and took the first right down a short hallway. The floorboards groaned no matter how softly they stepped on them. The only source of light in the corridor spilled out from under Shay's door. Shay led Allison inside.

Her room was clean and simple; there was a fairly sizable bed centered on one side of the room. It had crisp gray blankets and white pillows. A silver-legged lamp stood next to one side of the bed, and its light reflected off the uncovered windows spanning the wall behind the bed post. There was a white dresser with a smattering of miscellaneous items on it: lip gloss, earphones, an old card from an uncle.

Shay lifted her hand toward her bathroom. Allison went inside to change and brush her teeth. She was impressed with how clean Shay kept the space; Allison's own bathroom wasn't a pigsty but it was far from this sterile. When Allison emerged, Shay was sitting at a chair by her wardrobe, reading through the card with little interest. She looked up at her guest. Seeing Allison wearing her clothes caused a stir of feelings within Shay that refused to be ignored. Her mind immediately began to wander, so she practically jumped out of her chair and strode to the door.

"Alright, I'll see you in the morning?" Shay blurted suddenly.

"You're not sleeping in here?" Allison asked, a little confused.

"Nah, you take the bed. You're the guest and all."

Allison had a conflicted look on her face, as if she was filling out a pros and cons list in her head. Shay misunderstood Allison's contemplation and said, "It's cool, I'm actually the lucky one in this deal. My couch is hella comfy."

"I mean, we could both just use the bed," Allison said nonchalantly. She shrugged at Shay, making the offer as casual as she could.

Shay didn't want it to get awkward, so she agreed to the arrangement without taking a moment to consider. It was, after all, the practical decision, and debating it in front of Allison would only be offensive. However, she felt as though she made a mistake as soon as the words came out of her mouth. She knew she had begun to develop a crush on the brunette, so having to fall asleep next to her while being hyper-aware of if she happened to be brushing up against her or not was going to make her nighttime hours miserable. She could see it already: she'd be lying awake for the longest time, stone-still, hands at her sides and body hanging on the extreme edge of the bed, while Allison would be dozing off in a blissfully careless state because, unlike Shay, she didn't have a crush on the girl next to her. Shay suppressed an anxious sigh as she walked over to the side of the bed with her guest.

While Shay hesitated, Allison went right to pulling the covers back. Her long legs disappeared under the blankets as she climbed into the bed. She was waiting for Shay to lie down before she pulled the gray blankets over herself, but Shay abruptly moved toward the door. "I'll be right back... Gonna get a glass of water," she murmured, flicking the light off as she left.

Allison didn't suspect Shay of being uncomfortable with sleeping next to her, so she got situated in the darkness while Shay headed down the stairs. Truthfully, Leslie didn't need a glass of water. What she needed was a moment to collect herself. She felt ridiculous as she padded down the stairs to the kitchen. It was a simple action, sleeping next to someone. Regardless of whether or not Shay was crushing on her, she felt that she was unreasonably anxious. She hovered over the kitchen sink for a moment, then doused her face with cold water. Y_ou're going to go in there, be perfectly comfortable, and fall the fuck asleep. And if you wake up spooning her, it's not going to be a big deal, because Allison is straight anyway and you also have a terrible record when it comes to relationships._

Shay's self-lecture in the kitchen was the moment of solitary thought she needed. She headed back upstairs with a mission to simply fall asleep comfortably.  
In the dark bedroom, Allison found herself staring at the dense blackness despite her growing tiredness. The restlessness started to stir in the marrow of her bones u ntil she heard the door click open and shut again. The bed springs creaked quietly as the weight of Shay's body lowered into the spot next to Allison. The covers rustled for a few seconds. Then it was quiet. Allison became painfully aware of the sound of her own breathing. Just to distract herself from it, she whispered, "Night, Shay."

"Night, Raff." Leslie turned onto her side, faced away from the brunette, and bent her arm under her pillow.

Allison made a sincere effort to fall asleep. She felt much more at ease with another body next to her than all alone in the bed she used to share with her fiance. Still, she didn't feel completely safe. She needed something tangible to remind her that she wasn't alone. Tentatively, she slid closer to Leslie and curled onto her side. Her stomach touched Leslie's back. She carefully draped one arm over Shay's waist and asked, "Is this cool with you?"

Shay laughed into her pillow and replied in a sleepy, muffled voice, "Much less awkward this way." Allison smiled and nuzzled in closer, her forehead touching Shay's shoulder blade. "Cool," Allison said. Her heart rate intially became more erratic at the contact, but it slowed to a calmer rate when she felt Shay relax under her arm. She felt Shay's fingers curl inside the palm of her hand. Allison's body suddenly felt much heavier. The other woman's breathing was a calmning metronome and a constant reminder that there was someone next to Allison at all times through the night. The moment was so nice and so comfortable that Allison fell asleep with a small, contented smile plastered on her face.

Kelly Severide rose out of bed at the ungodly hour of five in the morning. He and Leslie had planned to be awake for dawn to fit a run into their morning. He splashed some cold water on his face and got his running gear on. His sneakered feet squished down the hallway toward Shay's room.

Shay and Kelly were very close, so privacy wasn't that big of a deal to either of them. That, and the fact that Kelly expected Shay to be awake and getting dressed already, led Kelly to simply open the door to Shay's room without any announcement besides calling, "Shay, ready for our run?" He twisted the doorknob and eased open the door. The slow movement made the hinges creak loudly and for an elongated stretch of time. Consequently, Allison and Leslie were both startled awake.  
What Kelly saw was completely unexpected. He did not even consider that Shay would have anyone over. Since the last girl with the apartment robbery, Shay cut down on the amount of girls she brought home with her. She also said she didn't like to take anyone home with her when she was working at Molly's because she didn't want to deal with a bunch of women finagling free drinks out of her. To top it all off, Kelly was pretty sure Allison was the least likely person to be found in Shay's bed. Besides her homophobic jokes (which Shay had eventually recently were just Allison's way of kidding around), Kelly didn't know much about the brown-haired paramedic, and he certainly didn't know she was close with Leslie.

Upon hearing and then seeing Kelly enter, Shay sat up in bed, startled. She disentangled her legs from Allison's, and Allison's retracted the arm which had been hooked over Shay's abdomen. Shay noticed the surprised look on Kelly's face. His mouth hung slightly agape and his eyes twinkled as if he had caught Leslie in some incriminating act. He held up his hands in apology and said, with an infuriating smirk, "My bad. I'm going for a run." He backed out of the doorway and put his hand on the knob. Allison and Kelly made eye contact. "Hey, Rafferty," he said. Allison just nodded, a little dazed, and Kelly shut the door. They heard his footsteps as he descended the stairs, followed by the quiet sound of the door closing downstairs.

Shay blinked dumbly at the door Kelly had just closed. _D__id that just happen?_ she asked herself. _That look on his face... Does he think we..._  
As if reading her mind, Allison asked, "Does he think that..."

"I don't know," Shay murmured. She turned toward Allison, who was propped up on her elbows facing the same direction as Shay. They both burst into a fit of giggles. Shay fell back onto the bed and rubbed her eyes tiredly. Allison, still laughing rolled onto her stomach to look at Shay. Just-woken-up Shay was adorable; her messy bun had come apart and blonde hair was springing from the back of her head. Her face was completely bare; it was wiped clean of any makeup and had that blissfully non-self-conscious obliviousness of the early morning. Her sleepy eyes lacked the sharpness Allison was used to seeing.

"That's too good," Allison chuckled. She held her head in her hands and looked out the window over the bed with a smile. The Chicago buildings were still stained blue from the darkness, but there was a vibrant orchid sky with tendrils of orange and ruby reaching around the rising sun. Shay caught Rafferty looking out the window with intense fascination, so she got on her knees to see what it was.

"Damn, _that _is a sunrise," Shay said. Allison nodded in agreement. Her eyes started to sparkle, as if the sun had sprinkled glitter in those brown rings. Rafferty appeared calmly amazed by the artwork in the sky. Shay absolutely adored the look on Rafferty's face. The clock told her they had only gotten about three hours of sleep, but Shay was energized by the possibility of seeing more of this unguarded, incorruptibly happy side of Allison. "Do you want a better view of the sunrise?" Shay asked. Rafferty's eyes peeled away from the sight to look at Shay with contained but festering excitement. "We can go up to the roof."

"Sounds good," Rafferty agreed, a grin breaking across her face. Shay smiled to herself as she stood. She fetched some warmer clothes from her closet, including a hoodie which she tossed to Allison. Allison grabbed a blanket off the back of Shay's chair. Once they found their shoes, they headed up the stairs to the roof of the building.

It was cold up there, but it was the kind of early-morning cold that carries the frozen possibilities of the Sunday. It was as if, as time dragged on and the weather warmed up, the day's potential would thaw and melt into something tangible. The view was a bit too urban to be ideal; three reinforced concrete eyesores would pop up around every one aesthetically pleasing building. What counted was the sky and the sun. The sun was just beginning to slide itself over the peaks of the many buildings. It was surrounded by a fascinating eruption of colors that neither woman expected to see next to each other. Purple and red and yellow came together at dawn, a secret affair of hues rendezvousing in the open sky.

Allison had frozen in place by the roof access door, eyes already snagged on the view. Shay tugged the blanket from her hands and threw it over the cold concrete roof. She took a seat on the blanket, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them to contain her body heat. Allison seemed to caught up in her own reverie to notice. Shay accepted the moment to take in the view before her— not of the sunrise, but of the smiling brunette. She had never seen Allison that way. She always had some kind of guarded edge to her. Usually it was manifested in the defensive way she'd cross her arms, with a nipping tone in her voice, or through a coldly detached look in her brown eyes. But that morning, when the two of them were surrounded by the blast of sunrise, Allison looked like a completely different human being. It was strange and fascinating to Leslie.

Allison eventually seated herself beside Shay. She curled up against the cold and, for what might have been the first time, dragged her eyes away from the sky to look at Shay. Some emotion was buzzing underneath Allison's skin, threatening to show itself in her face. It made Leslie both suspicious and intrigued.

"What?" she asked with joking wariness. Allison just shrugged and faced forward again. Shay shook her head. "Seriously, what?"

"This is nice," Allison said simply. She was looking Shay right in the eyes. "Thanks, by the way." Shay decided not to pretend she didn't know what the gratitude was for. She figured Allison had nothing to thank her for, but it was nice to feel the appreciation regardless. "Sorry if I was an ass to you before. I mean, sorry that I _was_ an ass. I'd take it back if I could." Allison's voice had taken on an introspective tone. "I don't know why I..." Her thought retreated.

"You were sick of being surrounded by overbearing couples," Shay offered. "I get it. You just decided to run with the whole gay paramedic partner thing." Shay shrugged the matter away. Allison looked troubled, though.

"That's true, but that's not what I meant."

"Oh."

There was a mysterious silence between them. Allison felt as if she had one foot hanging over a ledge.

"Are you going to finish that thought?" Shay asked with a smile. Allison did not reciprocate. There was a distant, contemplative cast in Allison's eyes, as if she were staring at a fork in the road. She stood up abruptly.

"Sorry, I don't even know where that thought was going," she lied. She looked toward the door back to the building. "I'm kind of tired, aren't you? We barely slept at all."

She was aware of Shay's confusion and apprehension at the sudden change of pace. Allison didn't care enough, though. She had found herself fighting the urge to lean closer as they were sitting on that blanket. It wasn't like when they were going to sleep earlier; her senses weren't bogged down by the darkness or her desire to get some rest. Up there on that roof Allison could see, hear, feel, and think about Shay without hindrance. It alarmed her that the very existence of Shay felt like a temptation, and although she knew what it meant, she wasn't ready to admit it to anyone, not even herself. She did, however, find it harder and harder to deny as she spent more time with her. She was divided in two; half of her wanted to bury the attraction and stay within the safe confines of solitude. The other half of her knew that being alone was terrifying, too, hence her inability to even fall asleep in her own empty home. That part of Allison wanted unabashed companionship. It wanted to lean in under the sunrise and deliver the most honest kiss she could, as grossly cliche as that would have been.

Allison was still unsure of what she would choose when it came to Shay: pursue something more or stay where they were? She still hadn't decided as she followed Shay back into her bedroom to get a few more hours of rest.

**A/N: Thanks for reading. Please write a review and let me know what you think about this chapter. This one was particularly difficult for me to write, and I'm not sure why. I eventually was like "Just _upload it!_" because I had been thinking about it too much. Anyway, I was trying to make some progress with their relationship here. Let me know what you think of that, and if you could, let me know your impressions of Rafferty and Shay according to how I am portraying them. It would be very interesting for me to read.**

**Thanks to all who read and all who review.**


	11. Chapter 11

Kelly Severide decided to prolong his run and then take a leisurely stroll around Chicago. He figured Shay might appreciate it if he stayed out of the house a little longer. At 7:00, he was standing in line to get a cup of coffee, wondering what course of events led to Allison Rafferty being in Shay's bed. He knew Shay had been closing up Molly's last night, so Shay probably brought Allison home with her from the bar.

"Here you go." The barista handed Kelly his coffee. The firefighter gave a nod and a smile, then found a seat in the small family-owned shop. He seated himself at a table in the corner. While he sipped at his coffee, he contemplated Shay's new relationship— or what he thought was a relationship— some more. He was surprised by his roommate; he would have never expected her to sleep with a coworker. Severide rubbed at the stubble on his jaw. He hoped Shay wouldn't get herself into something that could cause problems at work. She didn't exactly have a good record when it came to relationships, but even though he worried, he always had faith that Shay would practice good judgment. That faith started to dwindle when Shay took Clarice back, and then it took another blow when their apartment got robbed.

Kelly didn't know much about Rafferty, and that bugged him; he wanted to have an idea of what kind of person might break Shay's heart next. All he knew was what Shay told him plus his own personal impressions of her. Shay was pretty respectful of other people's business, but since they were so close, she felt comfortable divulging a few details about Allison to him. For this reason, Kelly knew that she had a fiance who died six months ago. He felt a pang of sympathy for Allison, but he also was more nervous for Shay. He considered the possibility that Allison might just be trying to get over her dead fiance by getting under someone else. It was a nasty speculation to have about a widow, but his first concern was his best friend. There was also the matter of Allision's snides about all things lesbian. Shay didn't talk much about it, insisting that it wasn't a big deal and that she could take care of herself. This was before she knew that these jokes weren't founded in actual homophobia. Kelly remembered her making this very clear to him, as if Shay had something to prove about Allison. It was all very confusing; Allison, the fake homophobe widow, suddenly with Shay? Again, Kelly had a hard time trusting Shay's judgment.

At some point during his coffee mediation, it occured to Kelly that both women had been fully clothed when he walked in on them. There wasn't a smudge of makeup on either of their faces, either. It then dawned on him that Shay and Allison might not have slept together... But it seemed ridiculous that they might have come from a bar late at night just to have a friendly sleepover. Having absolutely no clarification about the entire ordeal, he set the thought aside. He'd ask Shay about it later.  
By the time he was walking up the steps to the apartment, it was 8:15. He made a lot of noise putting the key in the lock and jangling it around; he didn't want to walk in on anything.

"Hey, Kelly." Shay set her phone down at the sight of her roommate. "I was about to text you."

"Yeah? Where's Allison?" Kelly discarded his sneakers by the door and made his way to the refrigerator.

"She's getting her things together upstairs. I was going to ask you if I could borrow your car to give her a ride home."

He didn't answer right away. A speculative look spread across his face, turning into something distantly alarmed. "Wait, did you guys... in my car?" He looked at her expectantly. Shay's face was blank.

"Did we what? Wait, no! No, we did not," Shay blubbered severely. She looked Kelly straight in the eye, focusing all her intimidation power into wiping the smirk off his face. "No, it's not like that. Kelly, don't laugh. I swear, if you don't stop smiling I'm gonna—"

She didn't finish her sentence. She was too flustered to come up with a worthy threat. Kelly just shrugged, a complacent smile still etched into his face, and turned to pull the fridge open. _So Shay didn't sleep with Rafferty_. Still, it was true that Shay had a thing for the brown-haired paramedic, otherwise she wouldn't have reacted so energetically to his inquiry.

It couldn't have been a more perfect moment when Rafferty descended the stairs, said hello to Kelly, and then, noticing Shay's demeanor, asked why Shay's neck was so red. Kelly shrugged, but his expression told Allison that he knew something he wasn't telling. He fled the scene, taking a tin of yogurt with him up the stairs. Allison was suspicious but unworried. She walked over to the couch Shay was sitting in and leaned her hip into the back of the leather sofa, right next to Shay's head. Shay saw Allison's waist edging into the zone of her peripheral vision. She looked up at her guest.

"You ready to go?" Shay asked. Allison nodded. Her arms were curled around a bundle of borrowed clothes that she promised to wash and return.

"Yep. Kelly said we could use his car?"

"Uh, yeah. He said it would be fine." She kind of knew already that he wouldn't mind. Shay hopped up from her seat, snatched the car keys off the hook by the wall, and pulled open the door. Allison turned and looked at the flat lovingly. Somehow, she felt a certain sadness to be leaving.

* * *

Four days later, Shay and Severide were scrubbing the floors of their apartment. Severide was painfully curious about what was going on between Shay and Rafferty, but he hadn't had a chance to ask her until then. They had been working long shifts Monday through Wednesday, and they both might have made plans for today if Shay hadn't insisted on them cleaning the house.

Severide dunked his rag into a bucket of soap solution and let it plop on the wood floors. He rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand, then went to scrubbing."So Shay..."

"Mm?"

"What's going on with you and Allison?"

Shay looked up from her scrubbing to meet Kelly's twinkling, expectant eyes. She shook her head and huffed, turning back to the washing, though Kelly didn't miss the smile on her face. It meant she wasn't in a defensive mood, so she was likely to open up a bit. All it took was a little more coaxing, and Shay described her situation.

"It's weird, because I totally know I'm crushing on her, but I'm also trying to be there for her as a friend, y'know?" She dunked her rag into the bucket with extra force, making the water lap with a noticeable _blump_. "And this is just perfect," she continued, a frustrated edge in her voice, "because I don't exactly have the best resumé when it comes to relationships, and just to add to that, I have to be feeling this way about a straight woman."

There was an utterly lost look on Leslie's face. She hoped Kelly might have some kind of solution to her predicament, but the only advice he had for her he knew she wouldn't want to hear. He forced himself to deliver the bad news because it would be better than seeing Shay getting in too deep only to be let down even worse in the future.

"Look, Shay, I think you should try to forget about Allison if she's not available." Shay frowned, but nodded. She figured that was what Kelly would say. It was reasonable advice, just not what she hoped to hear. "And the best way to get over someone is to get under someone. Just get out there, have a good time, and you'll forget about Rafferty soon enough."

Shay sighed and shifted into a comfortable sitting position with her arms propped up on the floor behind her. "The thing is, I don't really want to forget about Rafferty. I still want to be her friend, and she really needs one right now."

"Well, my advice still stands," Kelly said. Shay nodded, accepting the hard truth even though she didn't want to.

* * *

Two days later, Molly's was buzzing with activity. Severide, Otis, and Clark were seated together, each one cradling a beer in their hands. The firefighters had a particularly tough day that Thursday. There was a nasty fire, and they weren't able to rescue all the civilians in time. Two nameless men perished. Their choice way to unwind after a stress load like that was to grab a few drinks. They sat silently around the table, taking disinterested sips from their bottles, all of them zoning out to the same place they were trying to avoid.

Shay was at Molly's, too, but she wasn't working or sitting around. At that moment, she was being chatted up by a stunning redhead. Severide watched with minimal interest. Kelly couldn't see her face, but he did notice that she was at least three inches taller than Shay and leaning in very closely. She dipped her head down so her mouth hovered right next to Shay's ear and whispered something. When she pulled back, Shay nodded and initiated a kiss. At this point, Severide looked away, not wanting to invade Shay's privacy too much.

"Alright, guys, I've got to head home," Clark murmured, standing up from his seat and giving a conclusive nod to Otis and Severide. Otis raised a hand in farewell, and Clark was gone. They were down to two.

"Hey, Otis," Kelly said, "What do you think of Allison?"

Otis looked confused for a second. "Allison?" he repeated.

"Yeah, Rafferty, the paramedic that got suspended."

"Oh, oh, right. Duh," Otis said. He shrugged. "Well, clearly I don't know her very well. She seems pretty chill, if a bit... cold's not the right word, but I wouldn't say she seems like the kind of person who wants to be friends." Kelly nodded and looked off into the distance as he considered what Otis said. Otis's bushy eyebrows dipped curiously. "Why do you ask?"

Severide shrugged. "Just wondering," he said simply. Otis had a feeling that wasn't all there was to it, but he left it alone, returning to the comfort of his beer. Severide was about to dismiss himself when he saw the exact person he had been talking about coming through the doorway. Otis noticed the surprised look on Severide's face, and he turned to see what the source of it was.

"Well, speaking of which..." Otis murmured. Allison hovered in front of the door, scanning the room for a familiar face. She buzzed with anxiety the longer it took her to find who she was looking for. When she happened to make eye contact with Otis, Otis waved her over. She put on a small smile and began to maneuver through the many bodies in the bar.

"What's up, Rafferty? How you been?" Otis asked in his relaxed, convivial voice. He patted the seat next to him. Rafferty hesitated for just a second before sitting down. She didn't really know either of these guys very well, but she figured it couldn't hurt to be in their company.

"Fine," she said automatically. Her eyes went back to the crowd of people in the bar. Clearly it wasn't Otis or Severide she was looking for. She was about to ask Severide if he knew where Shay was, but she decided not to act too disinterested in her current company. "How have you guys been?" she reciprocated.

Otis's response was to connect his beer bottle with his mouth, shaking his head at the anxieties of the day he just had. Severide explained, "We had a bit of a rough day at work. Couldn't save everyone."

Allison's eyes darkened, and her mouth sank into a frown. "Hey, I'm sorry," she said tenderly. She knew what it was like to work like hell to save someone when fate already decided how their story was going to be written. Kelly was impressed by Allison's sincerity; he kind of figured Rafferty to be the emotionless sort. He nodded his appreciation and asked what brought Allison out to Molly's.

"Just figured I'd stop by, I guess," she lied. Then she said, "Do you know where Shay is?" There was a shyness about the way she asked it, as if she didn't want to seem too eager but wanted to know at the same time. Kelly considered lying, saying he didn't know where Shay had gone to, but his roommate was right in his line of sight, tangled up with that redhead on the other side of the bar. Allison saw where he was looking and twisted around in her seat. It took her a second, but she eventually saw blonde hair mixed with red. That girl was all over Shay, and Shay was all over her.

Allison turned back around with a noticeable redness spreading on her face. Allison felt it, too, and was pissed off at herself for reacting that way. "Um, I see her," she muttered lamely. She was suddenly aware of the fact that she had no drink to disappear behind, so she got up abruptly and made her way to the bar counter. Almost every seat at the counter was taken except for the one on the way end, right next to Shay and her new friend. Allison didn't want to enter that situation, so she just crammed in between two people and asked for the first drink she could think of. Unfortunately, Hermann was bartending that night, and Allison had to go through the pleasantries with him, too. Hermann noticed Allison's unhappiness, but didn't comment on it; they just didn't know each other well enough.

Allison returned to her table with Severide and Otis. She didn't really want to go back to sitting with them because she was almost one hundred percent sure they noticed her face go red at the sight of Shay and that other girl. _You're overreacting. You're cover isn't even blown, stop blowing everything out of proportion._ In reality, Allison's gut was right: Kelly and Otis had not missed out on the fact that Allison was being weird. She sat back in her seat wordlessly and downed half her drink in one go. Otis raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Kelly was watching closely.

"So, Rafferty," Kelly said, taking the opportunity to find out more about his roommate's infatuation, "are you planning on coming back to the firehouse once your suspension is over?"

Allison shrugged. "Dunno," she said quietly. Her glass hovered in front of her face, and her eyes were looking somewhere beyond their table, in the opposite direction of Shay. "I was a resident at Chicago Med. I might go back there, or maybe I'll go back to fifty-one, or maybe I'll find work somewhere else."

"Resident, huh? Why'd you quit that job?" Otis inquired.

Allison debated whether or not she should give the honest answer. It would be hard to fabricate a believable lie about the situation. Not that she wanted to lie- she just didn't want to get into personal stuff with people she didn't know. She decided a vague answer was her best bet. "Needed a new setting," she said simply.  
Kelly frowned and wondered how Shay could have fallen for such a guarded person. It was like he had to pull teeth to get even the smallest personal detail out of Allison. He looked at Allison for several seconds, hoping his unmoving eyes could coax her into adding to her answer. She shifted in her seat, uncomfortable with Kelly's silent insistence, though it did get her to say something more. "I knew a lot of the people at Chicago Med pretty well, and they knew me and my fiance, too. When my fiance died, they couldn't see me as anything but a poor widow."

Otis's first reaction was to offer his consolations, which was not what Allison wanted. It was always the same every time she talked about her dead fiance; people would say they were sorry, that it was such a shame, et cetera. She didn't get why "I'm sorry" was something people said to console others. Was it their fault her fiance got Hodgkin's and died? Obviously not, so why apologize uselessly?

Severide noticed the exhaustion on Allison's face when Otis offered his consolations. She didn't look emotionally strung out or pained, but instead there was a well-contained irritation about her. He figured the sympathy irked her, so instead of mimicking Otis, Kelly said nothing. He nodded, hoping that would communicate enough to Rafferty, and finished off his beer.

Allison sighed into her glass and drank the rest of its contents. She set it down on the table and stood up. "Well, I was just stopping by," she said. Before departing, she offered a very polite smile to both of the guys. "It was nice seeing you guys." Otis and Kelly returned the comment. Allison turned around and, before she could take a step toward the door, was distracted by Shay and the redhead. Shay was biting her pink lips as the redhead dragged her hands from Shay's waist to her wrists. She tugged Shay toward the door, Shay grabbing her coat on the way, and the two of them left together.

Allison felt something ugly simmering inside of her: jealousy. The sudden possessiveness of the situation was surprising to her; she hadn't felt that way in a long, long time. What's more was how she was frustrated with herself because she knew that if only she had the mettle to act on her now obvious feelings for Shay, she could have avoided this feeling altogether.

She felt herself becoming a spectator in Shay's life. As she stood on the sidelines, watching Shay go home with some impersonal woman, Allison felt a rough loneliness settle in her heart, right next to the jealousy and the anger. She took her time wading through the crowd of people on her way out, just so she wouldn't run into the couple on the street. She was unlucky, though; as she stalked down the sidewalk toward the nearest available taxi, the headlights of another car briefly illuminated the going-ons in an alleyway to Allison's left. In that short, two-second flash of light, Allison saw who could only be Shay pressed up against the grungy brick wall of the alleyway, being groped and kissed by the girl with red hair. Allison turned her head away, partly because seeing that made her want to cry, and also because she didn't want Shay to recognize her. Shay was too caught up to be aware of her surroundings anyway. Allison made it safely to the back seat of a taxi. There was a pang of disappointment, though; Allison's mind, pessimistic as it is, had a habit of conjuring up best-case-scenario fantasies in the course of only a second. Consequently, Allison had hoped Shay might see her, push the redhead away, and for whatever reason come running after her instead. Tears distorted Allison's vision by the time she murmured her address to the cab driver.

* * *

The cab ride home was quietly tumultuous. Getting teary-eyed pissed Allison off. She mentally lectured herself on the stupidity of her situation. _You were too scared to make a move, and now you're wishing you did, huh?_ During her emotional flurry, she began to feel that she had passed up her only chance at something, and now Shay was lost forever. She would never again see Shay without that tall redhead by her side. Allison tipped her forehead up against the cold glass of the backseat window and grumbled at herself. Over and over again, she saw the image of pale hands on the jean material covering Shay's thighs, lit by the spotlight of a car on the street. _An alleyway, of all places,_ Allison thought venomously.

To take Allison's mind off the disappointment with herself, her brain told her to be mad at Shay, who should have... _No, this isn't her fault at all_, Allison admitted tiredly. Logic started to penetrate her emotional battleground. She reminded herself that Shay was a free woman, and she had every right to hook up with some woman from a bar, a woman who was very clear about her attraction for her. This understanding did nothing to make Allison feel better.

The cab pulled up, and her hand slipped the payment to the driver through the small slot. She got out and stalked up the steps to her place. Her keys jammed into the lock, and the door flung open. With a sigh, she crossed the threshold, kicking the door shut behind her and carelessly discarding her keys in the general direction of a shelf. She cut a direct path to her fridge, yanked it open, and grabbed a bottle of beer. It came with her to the couch. She fell into the extreme corner of the couch, where she felt most snug, as if someone had an arm around her. This was a habit she had ever since her fiance died, but for once, she wasn't thinking about him in what used to be his home. Her brain contentiously summoned up images of what Shay was probably doing in that instant. Allison's firey anger and her watery sadness fizzled together into a kind of melancholic steam. Her beer bottle was her only vent, and it didn't last long. By the end of the night, she had three empty bottles on her coffee table, and her unconscious arm hung over the side of the couch.

Allison wasn't sure what woke her up first: the horrible sunshine streaming in through her windows or the nasty taste in her mouth. Slowly, she boosted herself up into a sitting position, causing an inevitable headache to batter the side of her skull relentlessly. She clutched her head, then shielded her eyes from the sun. A miserable groan dragged itself out of her throat.

It took her no time at all to remember how she had gotten into this pathetic situation. She was too worn out to feel that passionately about anything, though. She was a phlegmatic zombie, dragging her feet up the stairs to get to the shower. She didn't bother closing the bathroom door behind her as she stripped down; no one else lived there anymore. Her clothes were carelessly discarded wherever.

Rafferty took the moment to just stare at her own body before stepping into the glass shower. She examined herself in the full-length mirror on the wall and wondered how long it had been since anyone but herself saw this much of her. She began to count the months, finding it suddenly important. She hadn't been with anyone since her fiance died— well, not really. There was one date she went on, not because she wanted to but because her friends had basically forced her into the situation in an effort to get her to move on. Her feelings had been more hurt than anything; she thought it was pushy and insensitive of them to throw her into a blind date without her consent. She went to the dinner date just to avoid hurting the guy's feelings, which was a surprisingly gracious effort now that she thought of it. Long story short, her date never saw her naked, or at all after that dinner.

Her fiance died six— no, almost eight months ago now, and he had been too sick to have sex for three months before then. Allison did the math. _Ten months since I've been intimate with anyone,_ she realized. She didn't feel particularly sad about it; it was more of an uninteresting "fun fact" she pondered as she turned the water on.

The water streamed out of the overhanging shower-head. It was cold at first, making her retreat into the corner of the walled-in area and pull herself inward. The movement embodied the loneliness of Allison's situation. Every night when she lied down to sleep, her mind struggled to surrender itself to unconsciousness. She could never shake the feeling of being absolutely alone. She was alone in her bed, alone in her house, and alone everywhere else. Sure, she was surrounded by people a lot of the time— on her runs through Chicago, when she was maneuvering through a crowd, at work— but they were all faceless passers-by. Not a single person around meant a thing to Allison. Well, perhaps just one person.

As she stepped into the now steaming water, Allison closed her eyes and took herself back to her recent sleepover. The warm water cascaded down her body, burning away all the filth of her excessive drinking and the turmoil that had led to it. Her muscles relaxed. She could so vividly summon up the feeling of Shay next to her; the solid form of her back against Allison's stomach, the weight of her body underneath her arm. She remembered how their legs were entangled like they were meant to fit together that way. It was simple, platonic, and entirely wonderful. Shay seemed very far away, now.

Falling asleep alone every night since then was even more of a nightmare. The emptiness of her bed felt dangerous now. Every evening, the dark emptiness of Rafferty's apartment seemed to grow denser and denser, as if the air was gradually solidifying and would eventually crush her in her unconsciousness. If only she had someone there with her to warn her about the incoming danger.

She kept turning the temperature knob, bit by bit, making the water as hot as she possibly could without hurting herself. Somehow it made her think with more clarity. She dipped her forehead against the shower wall and, with her eyes still closed, tried to sort out a plan of action. She knew she had feelings for Leslie; that much was undeniable. Every time Shay smiled, Rafferty wanted more. She was amazed with how giving Shay was with smiles, too; a barely-passing joke and great news from a loved friend both resulted in big, bright, Leslie Shay smiles. It was impressive, really, that Shay could emit that much good feeling without ever seeming bubbly. It was as if Shay's blood pumped to the beat of a calm, quiet song.

Even the most simple parts of Shay delighted Allison. At the hospital, when Allison took a peek under the bandage, she couldn't help but notice more than just the wound. The skin around Shay's neck and shoulders appeared pale and smooth like stone, but felt warm like a blanket. Allison found herself remembering the appearance of Shay's collarbone, too; she had never really taken much note of a woman's collarbone before. Less personal but also appreciated by Allison was the way Shay would listen to other people. She had seen Shay walk next to someone, looking right in front of her moving feet as someone would relay some information to her. Her face would look blank almost, but you could tell she was listening intently because of the way she would nod periodically. Rafferty felt a little silly when she realized she had taken note of such a simple, perhaps meaningless observation, but it was just more proof that she was falling for Leslie Shay.

She wished she had said what she wanted to when they were watching the sunrise. The thing is, she wouldn't have been able to say it, even if she had the guts. She had all these feelings twirling around inside of her but no clear way to communicate them with words. Allison found herself reliving that morning but orchestrating the course of events she most desired, which started with a kiss. She found herself wanting that kiss so badly that she thought she might be willing to take a step toward it— the real thing, not just a fantasy. Allison cradled the idea of finally making a move, but she wondered if this resoluteness would dissipate like the warm water turning to steam against her skin.

**A/N: Chapter eleven was originally much longer than this, but I decided to split it into two chapters. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to review. I love to read about what you guys think, and I also have a habit of making lots of errors which you guys are great about pointing out. Means a lot. Have a nice day please**


	12. Chapter 12

Meanwhile, Kelly Severide was laying awake in his bed. His senses were fully activated, but he had no intention of starting his day yet. He had the next twelve hours off, and then he'd have to go back to his beloved but draining job. The heavy bones in his body told him to take it easy for a while longer. That would have been easier if he didn't hear very private noises coming from the bedroom down the hall. The distance between their rooms made the sound barely perceptible, but perceptible still. First, he rolled his pillow around his head like a pair of giant earmuffs. Just when he thought it was working, he heard someone vocalize, and he threw the pillow off his head impatiently. His arms stretched toward the end table where he had a pair of earphones. He plugged them into his ears and his iPod. He arbitrarily selected a song from his phone; any song would effectively block the intimate ambiance of his apartment.

If you were to ask Kelly what he was listening to, he wouldn't have been able to tell you; he could not stop thinking about the whole Rafferty-Shay situation. He wished he had known Rafferty had feelings for Shay earlier; then he wouldn't have suggested Shay move on. As private as Allison might be, she couldn't hide the clear signs of turmoil last night at Molly's. Both Kelly and Otis had noticed her face go red, her lips pulled taut, and her clumsy escape to the bar. Kelly and Otis shared a knowing look once Allison left their table. Otis looked amused while Kelly had already jumped to anxiety. He wished he could have somehow shot a telepathic message to Shay, imploring her to _Get away from that chick now! Rafferty is totally into you! _As close as Kelly and Shay were, they hadn't developed that kind of communication system yet. Even if they could send each other messages through their brains, Shay wouldn't have noticed anything; she was completely wrapped up with that redhead.

_And she still is_, Kelly grumbled mentally. He pulled one earphone out to see if Shay and her friend were still at it. They were. He groaned into his pillow, then begrudgingly swung his legs over the edge of his bed. His shower was loud enough to drown out any sound outside of his bathroom. He hopped in and let the warm water begin to tease out the guilty knot in his stomach. It was unreasonable to feel guilty, and Kelly knew that; no one, including Shay, had any idea that Allison might be into her. Still, it sucked to know that Kelly's advice, as warranted as it was, would complicate things between Shay and Allison. Shay never had an easy time with relationships to begin with. The comforting heat of the shower pushed a big sigh out of his lungs.

y the time Kelly was descending the stairs in his basketball shorts and fitted black t-shirt, Shay and her friend were lazing around in the foyer. Shay's shirt wasn't long enough to hide her pantslessness. The redhead's hands were lingering on Shay's hipbones, right above the line of her black underwear. Kelly wordlessly made his way to the fridge to find some breakfast. "Am I going to see you later?" their guest inquired quietly, giving Shay her most kitten-like expression. Shay smirked. She had her hand on the doorknob and her mouth on the redhead's. Kelly didn't hear a reply from Shay until several long seconds later, when she whispered, "You just might." The door yawned open and shut again, and Kelly and Shay were alone in their apartment.

"Mornin', Kelly," Shay said pleasantly. She climbed into the barstool at the kitchen counter. "You gonna make me breakfast?" She watched as he pulled a container of uncooked bacon and a jug of orange juice out of the refrigerator.

"Hey, I'm not your girlfriend," Kelly said, not unkindly though he was missing the humorous lilt in his voice. He didn't turn around to look at Shay, and his roommate mistook it for being upset with her. Shay's eyebrows knit together. She asked Kelly what was wrong. He took a long drink from the orange juice jug, finishing off the remainder of the juice in one go. It bought him a few seconds of time to think about how he was going to say this to Shay. By the time he tossed the jug into the recycling bin under the sink and turned to face his friend, Leslie's palms were braced against the edge of the counter in apprehension.

"Just say it," she said, reluctant but curious.

"You took my advice."

"Advice? Oh, about Rafferty. Yeah, and?"

"It was really good advice, right?"

Shay smiled, but her eyes reflected her suspicion with the inquiry. "Yes..."

"Okay, so we agree that it was solid advice, and we agree that we both thought Rafferty wasn't into to you." Shay shifted. She was a pretty humble girl, but the admission made her uncomfortable. She nodded wordlessly. Kelly sighed, setting the container of bacon aside. He leaned his elbows and forearms across the counter, facing Shay directly. His dark, friendly eyes met with her anxious blue ones. As he was about to tell Shay the mistake they both made, a smile broke across his face. It was unexpected, even for him.

"What?" Shay yelped anxiously. "Just say whatever you're about to say."

Kelly started to laugh. His calloused hand rubbed over his eyes and down to his jaw. Why had he been so guilty? Shay seeing another woman might have complicated things, maybe, but the apparent fact was that Rafferty seemed to have some interest in Shay. It was a good thing, and it took him until that moment in the kitchen to feel that way. When his chuckling resided, he smiled and said, "I think Rafferty actually has a thing for you."

Instead of being happy, Shay scowled. She spun around in her barstool and slid off of it, heading toward the stairs. "Very funny," she mumbled, unamused.

Kelly called out for Shay to wait, insisting that he was being completely serious. "No, really! Last night, when you were at Molly's, Allison came in." Leslie froze. Her head swivelled toward Kelly. Her wide eyes told him to continue. "She asked about you, and then realized you were kind of... caught up with someone." Shay groaned and clapped her hand over her face embarrasedly. She mumbled some denial about the unluckiness of her situation. Severide pressed on, more and more energy creeping into his voice. "She was jealous, Shay! I mean, it was obvious. You can ask Otis if you don't believe me."

"You guys don't know shit," Shay argued, hesitant to believe in what was kind of good news.

"Oh? Hold on a second." He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped the screen a few times. He held it out in front of him. The phone droned loudly with the precursor sounds of a call on speaker phone. Within a few seconds, there was an electronic crackle followed by, "Hello?"

"Otis, did you notice anything about Rafferty last night?"

It took Bryan a few seconds to respond; he was surprised by the immediacy of Kelly's questioning. "Uh, yeah. I noticed her staring at Shay and that chick."

"You think she was jealous?" Kelly was grinning now.

"Dude, she was totally ready to inject some poisonous paramedic syringe into that redhead. I mean, you saw her face go all red, right? And then she suddenly realized there wasn't enough alcohol in her system. If that isn't jealousy, man, I don't know what is."

Shay was standing by the counter now, subconsciously craning her neck toward the phone. Half of her wanted to believe what they were saying, but the other half was wary. What if they were wrong? If false information led Shay to make a move on Rafferty, and Rafferty totally wasn't into it, she was sure she would hunt down Kelly and Otis and make them both horribly miserable.

"Yeah, I agree. Thanks man," Kelly said with a tone of conclusion in his voice.

"Wait, what were you calling for? Is that it?"

"Yeah man, that's it. We'll see you later."

"W—we?"

Kelly ended the call and looked up at Shay. With a smirk on his face, he gave Shay a shrug, as if to invalidate any further disagreement about the situation. Shay's hands crept up to her head, wrapping her fingers over her scalp. She shook her head. Memories of the time spent with Allison came back to her. She remembered the car ride to the restaurant, the sunrise, waking up wrapped in her arms, that hug in the laundry room, Allison's hand on hers in the hospital. The hands were the deciding factor for Shay. The gesture always felt so private, and somehow it made her feel both vulnerable and safe. It suddenly wasn't so unbelievable that Allison might harbor some feelings for Shay, but... "Her fiance died six months ago," she pointed out.

Kelly sighed, casting his eyes up as if looking to a divine power for help. "Shay, did you hear anything Otis just said?"

"Yeah, but none of that ensures that if I make a move she'll be okay with it." She had a desperate edge in her voice, and there was a shaking anxiety reflected in the blueness of her irises.

"Nothing is guaranteed when it comes to this stuff." Kelly said. He gave a light laugh to settle Shay's anxiety. "You gotta take a leap."

"I followed your advice before," Shay pointed out, not harshly.

"Hey, we agreed that was good advice. Besides, if you hadn't done it, how would we know about Rafferty?"

Shay laughed. She shook her blonde head while a grin was stretching across her face. Kelly's argument, as indefinite as it could be, did make Shay feel better. Instead of sinking under the unfortunate assumption that she and Allison could never explore anything beyond their current friendship, there was the beautiful albeit risky buoy of possibility. All Shay had to do was swim toward it, and then she would know.

No more words came out of Shay, but Kelly relaxed, feeling very confident that things were going to work out. Kelly smiled to himself as he flicked the stove on. He had an inkling that Shay would be very hesitant to try to progress things with Rafferty. Shay pursuing Rafferty could be a huge mistake, that much he was very aware of, but he also had a feeling about Rafferty. She didn't seem to be like Clarice at all: not fickle, not passive, not manipulative of Shay's wide-open heart. As he set strips of bacon across a sizzling pan, he decided that he would make it his personal mission to push Shay and Rafferty toward each other.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you all watch Orphan Black tonight, 'cause that's where I'll be.**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Text messages are underlined and _italicized._**

Allison's hangover was easier to deal with after her shower. Her muscles weren't so taught anymore, and although her skin burned from the heat of the water, it was kind of nice. She collapsed over the clean white blankets on her bed and just breathed in the smell of the just-washed material. It was enough to lull her to sleep.

When she woke up, she had a text message from Leslie. Seeing that was enough to make her smile. But then her smile froze and fell from her face suddenly, like an icicle falling from a gutter. The memories came back to her. Her first feeling was anger, and although Allison knew she had no right to be angry, she wasn't exactly the best person at reigning in her emotions.

Shay had sent her _'Hey, weirdo'_ while she was asleep. Allison typed back something more begrudging: _'What do you want?' _Her thumb hovered over the send button, and just when she thought she was going to hit it, she deleted the message instead. Despite how she was feeling, she couldn't bring herself to take it out on Leslie. It really wasn't her fault. Still, Allison could not get the image of Shay's blond head pushed up against that brick wall out of her mind. She was pretty sure she would punch the next redheaded girl she saw.

Allison tossed her phone somewhere in the folds of the blankets instead of replying. She propped her elbows on the mattress and sat her face in her hands miserably. She gave a few stiff shakes of her head, then let out a large sigh. _This is so stupid, _she grumbled internally, _I'm acting like a child._ She flipped onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. It was lit brightly by the sunlight permeating the glass window, and due to her still present hangover, the view made Allison wince. She curled her arm over her eyes and laid like that for several minutes.

She tried to decide what she would do. She didn't want to feel like this anymore, but she also felt like it was too late. If Shay had had any interest in Allison before— and that was just wishful thinking according to the brunette— she was clearly over it by now. That idea was like an anchor tied around her chest. She grabbed for her phone like it was a lifeline and typed back a message, just so she could be talking to Leslie again.

_'R: What's up, ya freak?'_

Shay was quick with a reply. _'S: Nothing. What are you doing tonight?'_

Allison rejected the sudden feeling of hopefulness. _'R: I don't know. Certainly not drinking.'_

There was no reply from Shay for a couple of minutes. Allison realized she hadn't gotten dressed yet. She set her phone down and moved toward her dresser. Languidly, she shuffled through the drawers to find something comfortable to wear. On the top was Leslie's band t-shirt which Allison forgot to return. She sighed at her own luck and found something else to put on. Then her phone chirped, so she sat back down and picked it up.

_'SHAY: And here I was going to ask if I would see you at Molly's tonight. But I'm going for a walk on the pier. Do you want to come?'_

It sounded like a good time, except for the fact that just looking outside the window hurt Allison's head. Her bones felt heavy, too, and she was still periodically nauseous. She decided she couldn't be up for it, even though it sounded like a good time to talk. And Allison really needed to talk to Shay.

She debated dialing her up instead of texting her back. Would that be awkward? What would Shay think if Allison just started asking her all the questions on her mind: Where do we stand? Who was that girl? Do you know how I feel about you? Allison wondered if it would be better to talk to Shay in person on some day when Allison's head was not throbbing. She imagined her nerve would be gone by then, though, so she leaped away from hesitation and called Shay. While the phone rang, Allison got up and closed the blinds in her room; the sunlight was just too irritating for her to deal with on top of her nervousness.

Shay took a few seconds to answer, though Allison was willing to bet the phone was in her hand the whole time.

"Hey," Shay chimed pleasantly. "What's up?"

Allison paused with her mouth open a little as it tried to form words. "I can't go to the pier with you," she blurted. She pressed her palm into her brow and shook her head.

"Oh," said Shay. The smallest silence passed before she added, "Alright, that's cool."

"I want to, I just have this nasty hangover, and the sun kills."

Shay laughed. "Alrighty. Well, maybe I'll see you next weekend?" Allison could sense the conclusive direction the conversation was going in already. She knew Shay would hang up soon if she didn't say anything else. She wanted to say a lot, but her nerve fizzed out and all she could say was a quiet confirmation. "Okay. See you, Allison," Shay said.

"Bye, Leslie." Allison hung up.

* * *

It was Monday morning, and Shay stumbled out of bed and hobbled down the stairs, a zombie instinctively making its way toward the coffee pot. She fumbled with the coffee grounds and filter paper until there was a fresh pot going. Each drip was a tired metronome, and Shay found herself stretching across the counter with her eyes shut and her cheek resting against the tile.

She heard footsteps at the top of the stairs and winced when Severide flicked on the lights.

"Got coffee going?" he mumbled. Shay grunted confirmation. Kelly went back to his room.

Shay felt like shit, more than usual at five on a Monday morning. She had not been able to sleep the previous night. She couldn't stop thinking about her situation with Rafferty. She felt guilty and nervous and terrifyingly hopeful all at the same time, and it took her a good three hours of agonizing consciousness before she finally fell asleep. She guessed that she had only gotten about four hours of sleep at most, and the prospect of a long shift ahead did nothing to cheer her up. The only bright thing in her near future was this cup of coffee, and it was taking so long to make.

The coffee didn't do much to lift her spirits, though. The only thing that pulled her out of her half-dead grogginess was the cold blue morning. While Kelly drove them to work, Shay leaned her head out the open window and let the wind caress her face.

* * *

The lights in the firehouse were always painfully bright. She flicked a few off on her way from the entrance to the locker room. Robotically, Shay opened her locker, never even thinking of her combination, and sorted her things away. She then flocked with the firemen to the coffee pot in the kitchen. Dawson was doling out several mugs, and because Shay was her best friend, she didn't have to wait for the second batch.

"I love you, Gabby," Shay muttered over her cup, making her friend laugh. Dawson followed Shay over to the end of the table. They sat and drank together.

"So I'm going back to firefighting training soon," Dawson said. Shay nodded her approval and set her mug down on the table. She cradled her pale fingers around the warm ceramic.

"That's good. Are you nervous?"

Dawson, being the champion that she was, gave an indifferent shrug and a confident smile. She said it would be much less scary the second time around. It was a reasonable sentiment, so Shay believed her. Casey came over, curled his arm around Dawson, and leaned down to kiss her forehead. Gabriela smiled up at him with a sincerity that could not possibly have been fabricated.

Seeing that utterly natural exchange made Leslie feel incredibly lonely. She couldn't say it was very long since she had physical contact with someone, because in reality she had just a few days ago. But it had been a long time since someone had done something like what Casey and Dawson did. Aliza— that was the redhead— held Shay's hands and embraced her, but she wasn't winding her arms around anyone special. Shay meant nothing to Aliza beyond someone to sleep with. She didn't know Shay's friends or that she had been shot a month ago or that she loved her job. Shay hadn't expected spending the night with someone would make her feel so terribly lonely.

"Shay?" Dawson sounded concerned. Leslie snapped out of her somber thoughts and refocused her eyes on Gabriela, who had angled her head to the side as if to ask _What happened? _"You okay there?"

Even Casey looked concerned. Then again, he always looked at least mildly concerned about something. "Yeah, I'm fine. Might go take a nap, though." Shay finished off her coffee and stood. She smiled at the couple before walking toward the rest area. Dawson watched her go, knowing that if Shay was actually bothered by something, she would talk about it when she was comfortable.

Shay rubbed her eyes tiredly as she moved down the hallway. She leaned into the wall as she rounded the corner, then wobbled into one of the glass-walled rooms with a bed in the corner. She made sure to shut the door behind her, then collapsed onto the bed. Her body felt a little numb with exhaustion, though less so after her second cup of coffee. Still, she figured nothing could benefit her more than a nap. She hoped to God Chicago wouldn't have any medical emergencies for a couple of hours.

Naturally, she thought about Allison before falling asleep. She didn't think about how she was a little guilty or even how she would confess her feelings. She just closed her eyes and summoned up the image of Allison's face. She saw her coy smile and that beautifully affectionate look toward the sunrise. She heard her even unconscious breathing next to her and felt her arms snuggled over her waist. Shay's last thought was of Allison in the hospital, where she was a soft blur in the darkness, a mirage to lull Leslie to sleep.

* * *

The next weekend was too long for Allison to wait. She found herself driving toward Firehouse Fifty-one that Monday morning. She decided it would be best if she had some pretense for visiting, though, or at least something to occupy her fidgety hands with. She decided to grab two cups of coffee on the way. Walking up to the doors of Fifty-one stirred an odd mixture of feelings in Rafferty. Her face wore a composed facade as she crossed the threshold into the building.

"Hey, Rafferty's here!" Hermann called out as Allison entered the room where all of the firehouse crew usually hung out. Hermann was sitting at the table with the newspaper opened over his lap. Peter Mills was behind the kitchen counter. He shot Allison a friendly smile, which she reciprocated. Mouch asked her what she had been up to these days. "Not much," she confessed, "just been killing time."

"Anxious to come back, huh?" The guys laughed. Rafferty smiled at the joke, as if it weren't true. Some of the guys ambled over and chatted the paramedic up. It was mostly easy talk about what was new, what everyone had been doing, and the like. Severide remained silent while Allison and the guys caught up. He only spoke when he noticed her eyes scanning the room over their shoulders.

"You looking for Shay?" Kelly inquired nonchalantly. He already knew the answer; Rafferty had two cups of coffee in her hands, and he didn't figure the second was for him.

"Actually, yeah," Rafferty replied. Kelly chuckled internally. _As if she's fooling anyone anymore!_

Otis piped up. "She's in the back." He pointed a thumb down the hallway. Allison nodded, smiled goodbye to the guys, and strode down the hall. Otis fell into the seat next to Kelly, and the two men smirked knowingly at each other.

Shay was awake, but she didn't want to get up unless the alarm beckoned her. When Rafferty walked past and saw a blonde pony tail draped across a pillow, she stopped outside the door. Shay was rolled on her side. Allison couldn't see that she was staring absentmindedly at the painted bricks of the wall. Allison managed to pull the door open without any free hands. Shay heard it, and she looked over. She sat up immediately at the sight of Allison, who was offering a smile for a greeting. Shay's look of surprise melted into joviality. Allison held out a cup of coffee. Shay knew she shouldn't be drinking three cups, especially not so early in the day, but she accepted the drink anyway.

"Wow, thank you." She took a courteous sip, then added, "This is unexpected."

"Seeing me or the coffee?" Allison asked with a smirk.

Shay scooted to the side of the bed and patted the space next to her. Allison obliged and sat down. "Both, I guess," Shay replied. "What brings you here?"

Allison hid behind her drink for a quick moment while she worked up the courage to form an honest answer. "I couldn't wait until the weekend," she said. It took Shay a moment to understand, but eventually she remembered their conversation on the phone. _She wanted to see me_, she realized happily. A grin stretched across her face, and it delighted Allison. "You look dumb," Allison jested, gently nudging Shay's arm. Leslie chuckled and set her coffee aside.

"Have you seen yourself?" Shay returned. She eyed Allison's shirt pointedly. "Are you trying to tell me something with that flannel?"

Somehow, Allison hadn't thought of that when she got dressed in the morning. She just threw on something casual and found herself in the driver's seat of her car. She couldn't help but laugh at the hilarity of the situation. She tried to take a sip from her coffee, but her chuckling prevented her from being able to swallow, so she was just hunched over her cup with a smiling mouth holding the coffee in. Shay thought it was adorable.

Allison set her coffee aside, too, once the laughter faded. A comfortable silence enveloped them. Allison would have been content to just sit with Shay for a while, but presently they were on opposite sides of the bed, and what she really wanted was to be held. Since she didn't know how to finagle her way into that situation, she asked, "Did I wake you up?"

Shay shook her head. "Nah, I was just lying here." Wondering how long she had been asleep, she checked the clock and realized she had gotten an additional three hours of rest. It was unusual for Fifty-one's section of Chicago not to need any emergency medical assistance for so long. It couldn't last.

The silence returned. Leslie felt the need to fill it up somehow. Inspecting her hands, she said, "Uh, did you talk to the guys?"

"Yep. They all wanted to know what fun things I could have done over the three-month period. Thing is, I kind of did nothing." They laughed. Silence again. This time, Allison sensed some kind of opportunity. She pressed on. "Well, that's not entirely true. I did some fun things."

Shay sensed something in her tone that made her look up. Allison was looking right at her. Her eyes were moving left and right over Shay's face, and something was gleaming in her brown irises. Leslie suddenly found her own breathing rather disruptive.

"I watched the sunrise," Allison whispered. When she spoke quietly, her voice took on a lower key, and Leslie was in a trance. She realized she was much closer to Allison now. There seemed to be some very tangible energy pulling them inward. The brunette's eyes dropped from Leslie's eyes to her lips, and distantly they both knew what was happening. It took several audible heartbeats for either one of them to move, but one of them had just begun to consciously dip their head in closer when the alarm blared. It tore through the tension, demanding, "Ambulance sixty-one, officer wounded on Highlands Avenue."

Allison snapped out of their moment, and she became suddenly deflated. All the nerve she had worked up had just been severed by the intercom. Her head dropped and hung tiredly from her neck. Shay wanted to curse at the horrible cliche timing of the alarm. She could still feel her blood pulsating in her ears.

The kiss had been cut off, but the moment still held a genuine tenderness. Shay reached up a hand and brushed a strand of hair from Allison's disappointed face. The brunette looked up at her. Shay cupped her cheek and with her eyes expressed as much apology as she could before hopping up and hurrying away to the ambulance.

Allison felt her face go warm where Shay had touched it. _So this is real,_ she realized. She grinned to herself.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! I haven't written for this fic in a while, so getting back into it was kind of awkward. Also, I'd apologize for that horribly cliche thing I did there, but I actually have no regrets :3**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Sorry, but this is totally unedited. I just wanted to get something out before the start of the week.**

Rafferty sat in that room for several minutes after Shay left for the call. Nothing happened, and yet so much happened. Allison smiled at herself. She brushed her fingers over her cheek, right where Shay's hand had been. Allison did so gently, as if she were afraid to brush away the memory of that gesture. She went through the interaction in her head, and though she was a little embarrassed with her corny comment about the sunrise, she was happy with where it got her- well, where it almost got her. She was prepared to smash all the alarm systems in the firehouse.

When Otis walked past, he glimpsed Allison spacing out with a trace of a smile on her face. When she looked up, they made eye contact. It felt very out of place in Allison's private moment, so Otis darted away. Walking back down the hall he came from, Otis was grinning. He hurried over to Kelly and clapped his hands on his shoulders. Bryan fell into a chair next to him and whispered excitedly, "She's in there smiling to herself like a lovestruck teenager!"

Severide grinned at the news and leaned forward in his seat. There was a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. "Bet you ten bucks they kissed by now."

Otis laughed. He crossed his arms on the table, pondering the suggestion. "Nah," he said after a moment. "I bet it hasn't happened yet; I just have a feeling."

Severide raised his eyebrows. "It's a bet, then," he challenged.

Allison rounded the corner. She made fleeting eye contact with Otis again, and both of them looked away quickly. _Why is he looking at me like that? _Allison asked herself. She filed the thought away when Hermann approached. "Hey, Rafferty, where're you headed?" he asked in that chipper voice of his.

"I actually have to go," she replied. "I, uh, have a dentist appointment." She didn't have anywhere to be in truth, but she figured it would be a long time until Shay was back, and she wouldn't be able to sit still until then.

"Huh. Your teeth look fine to me," Hermann said, laughing. He gave the brunette a farewell pat on the back. "Rafferty's leaving!" he yelled. All the firemen looked up from their occupations and called out their friendly goodbyes. Even Chief Boden sauntered out of his office and held up a hand. Allison suddenly felt like she was leaving home. It occurred to her that she had friends again, new friends who didn't see her as a volatile widow. _And I have Shay, _she thought, hoping to God she wasn't making an incorrect assumption.

"Hey, maybe I'll see you guys soon," Allison said. She had been toying with the idea of transferring to Fifty-one once her suspension was over. Allison waved goodbye and went out to her car. Once inside, she fished her phone out of her pocket and typed a message, smiling to herself.

* * *

Shay sat in the shotgun seat of the ambulance. Her hand rubbed her forehead tiredly; it had been a stressful call. An officer was filled with holes like a punch card. She and Dawson were able to deliver him to the hospital alive, but barely. She didn't figure he would make it another five minutes. They did their best, but in the end, they passed the cop on to die in some doctor's hands.

"There's a chance," she heard Dawson murmur. She was saying it to herself mostly. Her eyes were focused on the road, but Shay knew she was on autopilot.

Desperate for a distraction, Shay checked her phone for the first time in hours. Gabriela heard her give a small laugh. When she glanced over, she saw the blonde smirking at her phone. "Girlfriend you haven't told me about?" Dawson asked. She had taken on a tone of curiosity. She liked to know what was going on in Shay's life, but also, she too needed a distraction.

"Maybe," Shay replied. "It all depends on tonight." Rafferty had sent her a text. _'I better see you later.'_

_S: You don't still have a hangover, do you?_

_R: Nope. Did you have Molly's in mind?_

_S: Nah, I was thinkin a walk on the pier._

Dawson was giving an airy laugh from the wheel. She asked Shay what was going on tonight, so Shay told her she was meeting someone after shift. "And do I know this person?" Dawson asked. She sounded a little too sure of herself. When Shay didn't say anything right away, Dawson pressed on. "I'm going to guess this is Rafferty."

Shay's head whipped toward her friend. "You've got to be kidding! How'd you know?"

Dawson gave a mysterious shrug. She pulled the vehicle into the firehouse garage. She was smirking, and it drove Shay crazy. Dawson shut the engine off and hopped out. Shay followed her to the back of the ambo. "No way you're not gonna say anything about this," Shay laughed. Gabriela turned toward her with a hand on the ambulance door. She gestured to the phone still in Leslie's hands. "You've been grinning like an idiot at that thing quite often, and when I asked you who you were talking to, you said 'No one.' So I knew it had to be someone I knew."

Rather than being embarrassed, Leslie just laughed at Dawson's impressive intuition. Then they pulled open the doors and began to restock the ambulance's inventory. But first, Shay checked her phone.

_R: Sounds like a good time. I'll pick you up at 9?_

**A/N: Just a really short chapter. Thank you to everyone who reads and reviews. I'm hoping to get another chapter up before Friday... And things will happen in that one!**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Thank you everyone who reviewed the last chapter. It's really nice to read all your reviews, and it means a lot that you take the time to say something about what I write :) Anyway, here's the next chapter... Think of it as my big thank you for sticking with this story... And an apology for taking so long (I swear I've been busy).**

Shay liked to think of herself as a pretty calm person. She was good under pressure, hence her line of work, and had a lifesaving ability to sail over less than ideal social situations. But on that post-shift evening, Shay couldn't stay still while she was waiting for Allison to show up. After gussying herself up and arranging all her things together, she struggled to find something besides the thought of this date— if it could be called that— to occupy her. She strode around her apartment for a while, then plopped down on her leather couch. Normally she could fall right asleep on that thing, but she shifted positions several times before finally launching herself back to her feet. She gave the furniture a betrayed look. Nothing could calm her nerves. Severide wasn't even home to entertain her. Shay had a feeling he was at Detective Gorgeous's, but she had no proof.

She was about to fetch herself a drink when she heard a knock at the door. Her heeled boots could be heard knuckling against the floor as she hurried over to receive the person on the other side.

Allison was leaning her shoulder into the wall outside Shay's door. It was a cliche position, but it looked natural and attractive as hell. Allison looked up expectantly, her brown eyes smoldering in the darkness. Leslie stepped out into the hall. Allison didn't move an inch besides her head turning slowly to stay attached to Leslie's eyes, so they were only a small distance apart. As soon as the door clicked closed, Leslie's hands found their way to Allison's face. And then her lips found their way to Allison's.

Though it wasn't a rushed gesture, it happened quickly, and for that reason it was surreal at first. That, and the fact that it had been a long time coming for both of them. It was a long, sweet kiss. Just as Shay started to pull back, she felt hands cradle around her waist, tugging her closer. Allison could feel Shay smiling. A feeling overcame them both. It all clicked into place, and with the kiss they were assured that things could never be the same between them again. They had foraged into new territory together, a place that was more honest than anything they had shared with each other before.

Perhaps it was the long period of concealment that made them feel like they had confessed something. Allison had taken her time coming to terms with her beautiful susceptibility to Leslie Shay. But it was Shay who said, "I've been waiting for that for a long time." Allison's mouth curved, delighted with the remark. She reached her arms around Shay's neck, turning her back to the wall and leaning into her again. Shay had no objections.

Neither of them heard the approaching footsteps until a surprised Kelly Severide and an amused Erin Lindsay hovered in the hallway. The detective coughed to necessarily pull Shay and Allison away from each other in the least awkward way possible. Allison's dark eyes slid open, snagged on the fireman and detective, and then lit up with shock. She released her grip of Shay's coat collar and pulled back.

Leslie looked confused for a moment, but then she followed Allison's eyes. Startled, she leaned back quickly and bumped the back of her head on the wall. Erin Lindsay smirked, then covered her mouth with the back of her hand, feigning another cough to conceal her laugh. Kelly, on the other hand, was shamelessly grinning at the two paramedics.

"Nice to see ya, Allison," he chuckled. Allison cleared her throat and gave a quiet reciprocal. She was tugging at her earring. Shay gripped Allison's fidgeting hand in her own and tugged her down the hall past Kelly and Erin.

"Hey there, Lindsay," she greeted pleasantly, offering the detective a warm smile as they passed. She shot Severide a sharp look, which made him laugh, then hurried down the hall with Allison. They pushed open the doors and hopped down the steps onto the street.

The pier was several blocks away, and though it was rather warm for the hour, they opted to drive to the water. Allison led Shay to her car, popping open the shotgun seat door and flourishing. Shay laughed, rolled her eyes, and climbed into the SUV. Once the door shut, Leslie watched Allison skitter over to the driver's side and jump in. Her hands, visible only in the stripes of streetlamp light that fell in through the windshield, wrapped her keys into the ignition. The car rumbled awake and began to fan them with warm air.

Allison's hand draped over the clutch. She was about to put the car in drive and pull out onto the street when she felt Shay's hand cover hers. "Wait," Shay whispered. Allison turned her head toward Shay. There was a single bar of light thrown diagonally over her face, illuminating her eyes, the hill of her nose, and her mouth. She waited for Shay to say something, but then she noticed her leaning in, and her eyes fell to Shay's lips.

**A/N: Sorry this is so short, especially after taking so long to update. I just wanted to put something out there to let you all know I am very much still writing this story. Thanks for reading as always.**


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